Keymasters
by Inferna Firesword
Summary: Fire burned in Choza's body, Antimatter surging through her systems. Lines of code flashed before her vision, and were the last things she saw before all went black. OFFICIALLY DISCONTINUED.
1. Prologue

**Author's Note: **Yeah, I finally gave into guilty pleasures and plot bunnies to write a Battle Force Five fic! Man, I love that show … =P Anyway, the story takes place relatively soon after the events of the Season 1 finale, in case you cared to know. (When the hell are they gonna show up with Season 2, anyway? I can't take the suspense much longer!)

**Disclaimer:** I do not own the franchise in any way, shape, or form; I merely screw it up for my own twisted purposes. Original characters/ story concepts are mine.

Prologue

The night around the desert town was quiet and dark, as it usually was after dusk. Most of the residents were gone for the time being, or else just asleep, so when the figure flitted by their windows on the way out towards the sands, no one took any notice – or if they did, they dismissed it as a trick of their sleepy eyes, rolled over, and drowsed off again.

Under the cold light of the moon and stars, the figure stumbled out towards the outskirts, glazed eyes fixed on the horizon. She _had_ to keep going; her mission depended on her endurance. Yet, even though her will was strong and dictated a stern _Move! _orderto her body, the body itself replied with a peevish energy drain to her systems.

Finally, she could take little more and slumped down on a dune, her legs almost having the mental consistency of rubber. Soft gasps ran out of her mouth as artificial lungs tried desperately to generate a big enough charge to give her the strength to move on, but it was five Earth minutes before she finally hauled herself back to her feet.

The runner was small, almost the size of the average Human ten-year-old. Her face and body were almost petite, with a base expression that exuded innocence like a hot s'more exuded gooey melted marshmallow and chocolate. Her eyes gave off the only other light visible to the desert sands, a beautiful violet shade that – upon first glance – seemed to lack pupils.

_I must keep going. I must find them. Mistress is relying on me._

Grimly, she pushed on, ignoring her dying power source. She had faced other threats to her internal power in the Zones, and she had pulled through to recharge herself and continue her mission. She would do the same here, by the Keymasters!

As if to accent her conviction, an internal beeping sent an alert to her synthetic mind. Her scanners had picked up a large power source just under a mile away. Smiling slightly, she pulled herself together and pushed on; her internal charge would be just enough to get her to the power source. After she reached it, she would hack it, refuel herself, and then continue her search.

Her feet sank into the loose sands, and she pulled them free easily; she was just glad that she was lighter than a carbon-based being, as opposed to the silicone-based being she was. Her artificial heart beat harder to keep up with her efforts, providing the initial charge for her body to generate movement, but her source was draining fast to keep her systems online. She had to move faster.

Not long after her scan had caught the energy source, its location came into view. It was a large building, not like some of the houses she had passed while moving through the town, but the power source was radiating directly from it. Shrugging, she moved right up to it; if it could supply her with the power she needed, it would have to do, abnormal outward appearance or not.

There was a small window that was ten feet above her head, but that was no challenge to the nimble female. Her fingers and toes found ample purchase on the walls and glass, and before long her body was squeezing through the gap and dropping down to the floor.

It was still dim inside, lit only by a single dying lightbulb. However, her systems were built to accommodate the challenges of different enviroments, and she adjusted herself to further adapt to the darkness. With a scan with her night vision, she quickly noticed a door; x-ray vision indicated that there was a stairway going down behind it.

The door smoothly opened at her touch, satisfaction filling her as she passed through the portal. She would refuel and continue her mission, because it had to succeed. She carried on not because of fear of her mistress, but of fear _for_ her mistress. As she continued down the stairs and through the halls that the steps gave way to, the words she had picked up on before she and the mistress had parted ways continued to haunt her. It had not been said, per se, but she had felt it in the air and in the words she had actually spoken.

_If I don't find the Five soon, all the Mistress has worked for will fall to ruin._

**XxX**

**Author's Note:** Yay, I got it started. Now, here's hoping Writer' Block doesn't strike again and leave me with an awesome story concept I can't finish. (As it has done with three other of my stories here … rest in peace, _Hybrid Theory_, _Shadows Rising_, and _Revenge of Fireclan_. .)

Reviews are highly appreciated, as they make the world go round for us writers (or at least they do for me). ^.^

-Inferna


	2. Override

Override

The soft, almost indiscernible sound of footsteps managed to rouse the drowsing girl who slept on the other side of the door. For a moment Agura lay under her sheets, wondering what was making her ears report that someone had padded past the closed bedroom door. Then her brain picked up just what that report entailed, and that was the end of her sleepiness.

The young woman kicked off her bedclothes and hauled out of bed, thankful that she had taken to sleeping in her shock suit early on in her career as an inter-dimensional hero. Ever since Krytus had been released from the Krypt Zone and the team had barely escaped him – less than a week beforehand, if it could be believed – the team had been far tenser than usual when it came to security. Hardly anyone was sleeping well these days, with the possible exception of Sage – but then again, as Sage _was_ part machine, it was to be expected.

The fact remained that even though the Hub and cars had been rebuilt and upgraded since the events following the temporary alliance of Vandals and Sark, they were all tense, just waiting for Sage's twin brother to knock down the door and destroy them for good. As quietly as she could, the Battle Force 5's second-in-command cracked open her door, ears pricked as well as they could to better pick up the sounds. Placing one eye to peer through the gap, she was just in time to see a shadow flit around the hallway corner and vanish from view.

Steeling herself, Agura pushed open the door and began trailing after the mysterious figure, walking on her soles as much as she could to reduce accidental noise. Her hunter instincts were sharpened by the dark, seemingly-lifeless base around her, and the danger that lurked just around the corner.

As she turned the bend, she caught her breath – there was another figure in front of her field of vision. The darkness was playing tricks on her eyes, so it was hard to tell just what it was, but it was definitely large. Bending her legs like springs, the African princess launched herself towards the intruder.

Perhaps her attack was not as silent as her footsteps, because the trespasser turned its head and body to face her. Two eyes blazed out at her, and Agura realized her mistake right before the male got out of the way and pinned her to the floor when she landed.

"Zoom! What are you doing up?"

The Muay Thai fighter quickly released Agura and helped her back to her feet. "I thought I heard something coming from the Hub. With Krytus out …" he let his sentence trail off, since he knew the female rider would be able to mentally finish the sentence – it had been on the minds of everyone since that fateful day.

Before Agura could reply, another sound – like something banging lightly against metal – caught their attention, and they quickly made their way down the hall to look into the Hub. The room was dimly lit to conserve energy, but it was enough to show the shadow figure flitting towards what used to be the Battle Key Vault, before its destruction during the break-in.

Both exchanged worried glances, than darted after the figure. The Vault had been rebuilt since then, but the only Key they had led to the Blue Sentient homeworld. They could not afford to lose it, especially if Krytus was still on the surface of that planet.

The idea of getting Vert or Sage briefly crossed their minds – Sage was the one who guarded the Vault, after all, and the blonde was the one who carried that sword around – but the idea died when they managed to get a clear look at the intruder at last, and what its' current actions were. The prowler had seemed to completely ignore the Vault, and was trying to access the computers for some reason. The figure wasn't much taller than Spinner, the shortest member of the BF5 – both hazarded an estimate that Spinner would actually be half a head taller than the hacker.

Whatever it was, the estimate made Zoom feel a bit bolder – clearly this was not Sage's evil twin, unless he'd figured out how to shrink himself – and much more confident in his belief they wouldn't need the others to subdue the figure. It was that belief that made him lunge for the intruder, confident of an easy take-down.

The order for Zoom to abort was on Agura's lips, but it came too late. The moment her friend had become airborne, the hacker whirled around, violet light streaming from its eyes. With ease, the figure blurred just out the Muay Thai fighter's reach and then – letting Zoom fly past; a startled "Woah!" followed him like a comet's tail just before he crashed – flew at Agura.

**XxX**

_[[Hostile entities! Engage!]]_

The scan blazed in the forefront of Choza's visual receptors/eyescreens in warning letters. In a hurry, the Black Diad leapt to the side, forgoing her attempts to restore energy to evade the attacker. She ground her teeth in annoyance as she landed; her internal systems were on power conservancy mode, meaning she couldn't track in thermal imaging or hack from long range at the moment. Still, taking out these foes shouldn't take long – they outnumbered her, but she was faster and probably smarter. Once they were defeated, she would recharge, wipe their memories, and continue her Mistress' quest.

With this new course of action in mind, she lunged for the female she had sensed from the direction of the initial attack's origin point, confident in her ability to subdue her. Unlike the Diads that served the Blue Sentients, or the corrupted Diads that assisted their Red counterparts, her kind were faster and more agile than any species – if she kept up her strategy long enough, the two enemies would eventually expose a weak spot she could target and shut them down with.

As she bounded for the neck of her second enemy, the scanners alerted Choza of two things: that the first attacker had recovered from his crash-landing on the floor, and that her power levels were below ten percent. Neither meant she would fall, or automatically lose – it just made things more interesting.

The impact of her sturdy silicone-based body upon the strange skin of the female elicited a sharp, heavy exhalation as the wind was knocked out of her. Riding with her collapse, Choza disengaged herself in time to let the attacker from behind hit his ally; her smaller body proved to be an advantage here, rather than a liability, since it meant hitting her was more of a chore than with a larger opponent.

She took advantage of the slight lull that followed to scuttle back to the data port she had exposed just before the assault had begun, transitioning her left hand into a drive and plugging herself in. Power began to flow from the computer and into her cells, data accompanying it to enter her cerebral cortex.

Strange. The manner this was joining her was almost like that of Sentient machines. But why would there be Sentient technology on Earth? Unless –

_[[Hostile entities! Re-engage!]]_

Yanking out her hand, Choza wheeled, saw the blade descending towards her, and leapt back into the air in time to watch it slam to the ground with a _clang!_

Landing on top of her hijacked machine, the Black Diad looked across the no-man's-land to meet the eyes of her new opponents. The number had tripled to six – the smallest was barely taller than her, while the largest would be challenge for even her Mistress to out-muscle. The one in the front was the one with the bladed weapon, while the enthusiastic one that had attacked first was flanking his left side.

Clearly, her scuffle had been louder than she'd thought if it had attracted more enemies that were better equipped than the first two. She was about to activate her combat program, despite the fact it would completely drain the last of her internal battery to use, when her night vision zeroed in on the numbers printed on their left sides, just below their shoulder blades. The colors were different on each entity's body, she noticed that now, but the number itself made her internal thought process freeze and recalibrate itself: a human Arabic numeral, signifying the number _5_.

_Mission: Locate the Five from Sentient prophecy. Deliver the Mistress' message to them. Gain their help._

She had no doubt – these were the Five from legend. This meant a change in tactics: no longer label them as hostile entities, but try to end hostilities and engage diplomatic policies. Perhaps by making herself invisible, she could calm them and deliver the message.

Triggering her cloaking program, Choza rocketed into the air above their heads with a powerful leap, feeling the unit wrap her in bent light at the apex of her bound and muffling her footsteps when she landed behind them. However, it clearly wasn't enough, as the female she had engaged earlier shoved her way past the others and deliberately made a grab for her ankles.

Clearly, this was not enough. Shutting off her cloak (leaving her energy levels at 5%) she preformed several handsprings away from the female, landing perfectly upon her toes – as she should, since Diads and Sentients were meant to be perfect. Her intent was to lead them back out of the space and outside, where it would be easier for her to escape if she proved to be mistaken in her belief.

Alas, it was not meant to be. She thought she had taken everything into account, but she had neglected to remember the smallest two.

Her side sensors belatedly detected the movement from left and right, and then she collapsed with aching sides as the pair connected. The lights around her finally came on, blinding her but not blinking out the large red letters that appeared before her:

_[[Power core drained. Shut-down sequence beginning]]_

Feeling her body beginning the blackout, she reached out, desperate to get part of the message passed on and give her conquerors an incentive to recharge her. With her last dregs of reserves, she croaked out a few words.

"Peace…" she whispered. "My Mistress … told to seek out the Five … fellow Sentient … seeking Sage…"

Then all went black.

**XxX**

So yeah. Please don't ask why Choza (who was the girl from the Prologue) is a Diad; I just liked the Diads, even though the only canon member of the group turned out to be a (as Stanford would put it) "backstabbing yellow-bellied fore-flushing little turncoat." =P Besides, they're like chibi Sentients; how can you not like them?

R&R, C&C, please. =D

-Inferna


	3. Reboot

Reboot

_[[Power levels: 100%]]_

_[[Memory scan: no missing files]]_

_[[Internal virus scan active. Results: negative]]_

_[[Area scan indicates seven nearby neutrals. Best policy: adopt passive information gathering strategy]]_

With her initial wake-up scans complete, Choza decided that the "wait and see" policy would be best. From what her audio receptors were already picking up, the humans she had fought against had not relinquished custody of her to anyone else – she recognized the sounds of two voices the Black Diad had recorded in the fight: the female she had slammed with her shoulder, and the male that had flung himself towards her at the start. Keeping her eyes firmly closed – noticing that she was face-down on some metal surface covered with thin sheets – she began to listen further, trying to identify the other five speakers.

"They've been resting on the station for a while. Think that's enough?" A male voice, one she mentally dubbed Voice 1. The sound itself sent a ping of slight recognition through her, since it resembled the grunt that had accompanied the sword swing from earlier.

A pause followed, and then a deeper Voice 2 replied. "The read-outs say they've been hooked up all night; it should be at full energy capacity by now. The start-up should be soon."

"Remind me again, why'd we recharge that Diad, anyway?" Voice 3, who seemed to be a dissenter. For some reason, the voice grated her nerves, but Choza couldn't tell if it was from the strange accent or the somewhat self-important undertone. "Remember the last time we ran into one of those blighters?"

"That was just one Diad, Stanford," Voice 1 pointed out.

A snort came from Voice 3/Stanford, which was only replied to with a sigh from Voice 2. Another pause punctuated the area, but it a lot longer before someone broke it – in this case, a slightly high-pitched male that became Voice 4.

"How long is it gonna take for it to wake up, anyway?" he complained, sounding

bored. "I've got a game to work on."

"It should not take this long for her to awaken. Perhaps something is wrong with her system that we did not pick up on."

That was Voice 5, and it sent an electric jolt through Choza. The tone, the sound, the delivery – she knew what was transmitting it. Her journey had indeed been brought to an end, because this was the Sentient Sage!

Quickly ditching her passive eavesdropping, the Black Diad activated her external body systems, granting permission for her limbs to move again. Even as her eyes glowed back to life, she threw out a realistic groan as she officially exited recharge mode.

All voices instantly ceased as her whimper floated into their ears, then just as quickly started up again, all clamoring to speak to her. Choza's ears couldn't process all of them, so she settled for the one that hadn't joined in: the voice of the Blue Sentient Sage, the one her Mistress had bid her to seek out.

Sliding her hands forward, she leveraged herself upward until her body weight was centered on her knees, violet eyes facing the small crowd at her bedside. She was less than pleased to realized that Voice 3's outfit matched her optics; it was easy to tell, since he was still grumbling to thin air. Choza opened her mouth to try and address Sage – who was standing near the back – but the largest of the group beat her to it. The male was brown-haired, wore an indigo suit (definitely had Sentient work on it, probably from Sage), and his vocals matched up with that of Voice 2.

"Who are you?" he asked. The Diad was briefly frustrated by the new delay, but – after reasoning that telling them something about herself might make it easier for her to pass on her message, and might trigger a reaction from Sage – she relaxed and answered. "I am Choza, Alpha Prime Black Diad for my Mistress, the Sentient Metaturra. She sent me to find the Five and their ally, Sage."

This time, it was Sage's turn to cut someone off.

"Metaturra is alive?" she asked, moving past the humans that bore the sacred number _5_. The Blue Sentient looked and sounded startled and hopeful, like she hadn't dared to think that the thought was possible, and Choza took notice.

"She is, and requires help from you and the Five."

"Just who is Metaturra, anyway?" demanded Voice 4, who resembled Voice 2 on the level of facial and outfit resemblance, but the Diad picked up that he was shorter and slighter than the larger one.

The reply came from two throats, both from a realm different from that of Earth. "A Keymaster."

**XxX**

After that little bombshell had been dropped, Sage apparently got the impression that the Diad would want to update her first – something confirmed milliseconds later when Choza suggested they speak alone. Thus the reason that – five minutes after Choza had spoken – all six members of the Battle Force Five were in the hallway they'd been semi-ceremoniously exiled to, two of them pressing their ears against the cracks to try and pick up what their friend and the newcomer were conferring about.

"Anything?" Vert asked as quietly as possible, not wanting the Blue Sentient to pick up on their eavesdropping. Originally Agura and Stanford had been on door duty, but Stanford had switched out with Sherman when they had realized the two were speaking in Sage's native tongue. As Sherman was the only one that had more than a passing knowledge of the Sentient language, the place exchange had been a no-brainer.

The younger Cortez brother shook his head, brows creased in annoyance. "The words they're using aren't ones I know. I can only pick up a few words I can understand – something involving Krytus and the Battlekeys, but I don't know anything else."

Stanford had taken his respite from eavesdropping to further grumble his opinion that recharging Choza was a bad idea, and no one felt like making him shut up. All of them had been affected by the betrayal by Praxion and the release of his master, but Stanford had taken it the hardest, since he had felt the Diad could be trusted. Ever since, he had been muttering his newfound opinion that Zemerick had the right idea about the Diads: how they were deceitful, untrustworthy –

" – Backstabbing yellow-bellied fore-flushing little turncoats," finished a new voice over the intercom, making the Battle Force 5 jump a mile as the newcomer took over the end of the Brit's sentence. The group stared at the door as it swung open to reveal Sage and Choza, the latter holding it open. "I suppose the saying is true, as far as you're concerned – one bad apple spoils the whole barrel," the Diad continued, eyeing the royal with a lazy orb of violet energy.

Stanford looked slightly uneasy as he and the others filed back inside the room, wondering just how she'd been able to know what he'd been about to say, but it was Spinner who asked the inevitable question: "Just how did you know the rest of that?"

Choza smiled, with an accompanying attitude that was three parts innocence, two parts humor, and one part all-seriousness. "My Mistress has very good information hubs – she saw the breach in the Krypt Zone and all that followed, including that line."

With that cleared up, Vert got right down to business. As the others settled into their chairs to finally hear the story, the blonde driver addressed Sage. "So what's the deal?"

"Choza's Mistress is the Sentient Metaturra, the last surviving member of a group called Keymasters. Their task is the maintenance of the Battlezones, which in ancient times had been created to bridge the gaps between civilizations."

"So, they were inter-dimensional highways?" Spinner theorized, trying to decipher Sage's usual manner of speech.

"You could say that," confirmed Choza. "And to further your comparison, the Keymasters were the inter-dimensional highway patrol, regulating the traffic that flowed between worlds. The Battlekeys were created to help with this task, making sure that armies could not invade through the gates."

By now, Sage seemed to have handed over the reins to the female Diad and was letting her do all the talking; she made no move to reclaim the floor as the Alpha Prime abandoned the chair she'd been seated in and began pacing back and forth.

"As tension began sweeping across the multiverse, the danger of theft of those Keys became greater; at the same time, the first Red Sentients emerged amongst the overall race. As the danger escalated, the leaders of the Keymasters forged six Battlekeys that were tied to the multiverse as a whole, and not just a specific Battlezone. Dubbed Master Keys (and yes, it's an unoriginal name, but what can I do?), these Keys could seal and open any Battlezone, and could override even the power of a specific Key. During those years, the threat of Battlekey thefts decreased. Until …"

"The destruction of the Sentients," Sherman finished, nodding slightly as he remembered. From what he'd learned from Sage during her time without her full memory, he had learned that all members of the Sentient and Diad races had been decimated by the Sark and Vandal invasions. Until meeting Choza and witnessing the release of Krytus, what she had said had not made sense.

A shadow flitted over Choza's eyes. "Yes. The Black Sentients and their Diad counterparts had always been minorities in the Sentient peoples, and to protect us we were given custody over the Battlezones. Though we were not directly attacked by the Sark and Vandal conquerors, we were affected by the decimation of our kind. As time went by, the Black Sentients that made up the Keymasters began to die, either from grief or some other, unknown cause. Now, only my Mistress remains."

"What does this have to do with us?" Zoom inquired.

Sage decided to retake the floor from Choza, who offered little resistance. "Before his destruction, the Diad Praxion managed to inform my twin brother of the state the Keymasters were in. Metaturra is the only member of the group now, and she has all six Master Keys. After witnessing Krytus' release from the Krypt Zone, she sent Choza to find us and ask for our help to be transported from the Battlezones and to Earth, where Krytus cannot take the Master Keys from her."

"If my Mistress falls into Krytus' hands, he will corrupt her. He will extinguish the good in the last of the Black Sentients, turn her into a Red Sentient, and have control over the Master Keys." The Diad's eyes met all six pairs of human eyes, and there was no humor in them. "I do not believe I have to continue explaining – you already know what will follow if my Mistress is captured."

She was right. They had all faced the possibility of Earth being conquered by the Sark and Vandals in the months since Sage had brought them together, but this was far worse. Even if the Vandals or Sark had seized the Battlekeys in the past, or enacted some scheme to follow them through a portal, there had always been a way to foil those plans and keep their true mission a secret from the rest of the world.

Not this time. If Metaturra fell into Krytus' hands, there would be no way to prevent him from reaching Earth – the Master Keys would cancel them out. There would be no way to try again, no extra lives, no final wild card to play. Not even the power of the Mobi could keep Krytus out forever: if he seized the Master Keys, the multiverse would suffer a final Game Over.

**XxX**

**Author's Note: **This is very late, but I have a big thank you for all those that have faved, subscribed, and reviewed thus far; I promise that in the next chapter, I'll have direct replies to your reviews. =D

That being said, I have to go back to school next week (September 7th, ugh), so I'm not sure _when_ Chapter 3 will be up. -.- Bear with me on this – I have the entire story mapped out, so Writer's Block will not interfere with the plot; just the whole process of getting it onto a Word document.

Thanks again!

-Inferna


	4. Crossover

Crossover

The main conversation that filtered through the communication units was that of an argument – an argument that most of the BF5 found rather pointless. As could have been expected, the ones doing the arguing were Stanford Isaac Rhodes IV and his passenger, the Black Diad Choza (_Alpha Prime Black Diad_, as both Choza and Sage had emphasized over the last two days: apparently the title meant something very important in the Sentient culture, though Sherman didn't know what it was and neither extraterrestrial had gotten around to informing them what it was), and it was over the radio station, of all things. Apparently, while Stanford had a taste for rock 'n' roll, europop, and electronic music, Choza's preferences lay towards hip-hop, rap, heavy metal, and alternative rock – and neither seemed very interested in compromising on a station, since both kept changing the radio from what the other had switched it to.

Vert did his best to tune them out without turning off the comm, which was easier said than done. Judging solely from the expressions on Agura and Zoom's faces – the ones who were on either side of the Saber – he wasn't the only one having trouble.

To better seal his ears from the bickering, the blonde reviewed the game plan that had been set out the night before by Sage, Choza, and the team. Since the Diad apparently had a miniature Master Key program in her body, given to her by her Mistress before they had parted ways over a week ago in Earth time, she was to take the lead when a stormshock – the first since their escape from Modulon 5 – kicked up, and use it to open a portal to a new Battlezone, one that none of them had heard of or entered.

Choza had described it as a 'River Delta'-themed Battlezone, saying it would make more sense once they got their stormshock. Apparently, when she combined her program with the zone's Battlekey, she would be able to open a portal to Metaturra's Hub-Zone –"and all being well," the Black Diad had finished, "we should find my Mistress safely there, and we can transport her to the Hub."

Vert wasn't sure about the "all being well" part working out as planned, especially when you were dealing with someone as powerful and dangerous as Krytus, but they clung to the hope that Choza stoutly believed in. None of them wanted to face Sage's evil twin again quite so soon after their first encounter.

_So here we are,_ he thought to himself, _driving around the desert because we're too antsy to wait in the Hub for a stormshock, listening to Stanford and Choza disagree over the radio station._

A crackle came through the comm, heralding Agura's suggestion that the other four vehicles switch to a different channel, which was a piece of advice he took gratefully. Five different sighs of relief echoed over it as the rest of the Battle Force 5 gained a blissful reprieve from the two riders that seemed to be at loggerheads over whose music preferences would dominate the Reverb's speakers. Vert glanced over his shoulder at the car in question, trying to tell if the occupants had noticed that they were in radio silence, but from the expressions he could see, the opposite seemed true.

Maybe there was more to the argument than just a clash of musical interests. Stanford had been – while not completely hostile – openly distrustful of Choza since her arrival that dark night not long ago, merely because of what she was; his impression of her and Diads in general had been sullied by Praxion's betrayal. It did not help that the female Diad – while not openly distrustful of him – had taken a dislike to him, perhaps as a direct result to his behavior: she had been courteous to him at the beginning of all this, and that courtesy had declined afterward.

_Maybe they just need to get it out of their system. Get some of their dislike out of their systems and see what happens afterward._

"Let's put some distance between them and us," he said aloud. "We'll switch back to the other channel if Sage contacts us with a new stormshock."

"Sure that's a good idea?" Spinner asked from the Buster's turret-section. The blonde driver got what the older Cortez brother was driving at, and replied: "Sage will be able to get into contact with us no matter what channel we're on. Besides, the only real dangers out here are cactuses and Sheriff Johnston, and neither will be a problem if Stanford remembers to check the desert."

The explanation seemed to satisfy the others enough to take his advice. Without a backward glance, four cars from the Battle Force 5 peeled off and went deeper into the desert, leaving the Reverb to its own devices.

**XxX**

In the passenger seat of Stanford's car, Choza finally gave up her argument and left the radio the way it was, closing her violet eyes and trying not to let the music that was not her preferred choice get to her. It was not as easy as some would think, but she managed in the end; it was harder for her to ignore Stanford's distrust of her, which radiated off him like heat waves and made the atmosphere of the Reverb's interior almost as uncomfortable as heat-humidity.

"What are you thinking?" she finally asked when the silence following their argument stretched on for far too long. Her eyes remained closed, so she could not see what expressions colored his face, but the Black Diad could sense them in his curt, suspicious tone.

"The Battlezone. How do you know we aren't walking into a trap?"

Choza could guess what he really meant by that – _How do I know you aren't going to betray us?_ – but she chose to pretend she had not grasped the implication. "Traps are a very good suspicion, but I doubt we will have trouble. Zemerik has far more on his mind nowadays than fighting you and the rest of the Five, especially in the light of his former Master's release. As for the Vandals – well, I do not think they will appear. After Captain Kalus' death on the Blue Sentient Planet, they will be far too concerned with deciding on a new Warlord to bother us for some time. If Vandals are waiting for us, I'll eat what's left of my Shifter."

"Your what?"

"My Shifter. It was a vehicle my Mistress made for me to better execute my duties as her Alpha Prime, but it was destroyed in the Battlezones while I was searching for a portal to Earth."

"What's with the Alpha Prime thing?"

Choza knew this was more than just small talk – Stanford was looking for hints that she was not to be trusted, seeking signs that he was right in his misgivings. Perhaps explaining her rank would help ease them. "_Alpha Prime_ is the highest rank achievable by Diads in the services of their Master. It means we are the closest to them, their right hands – the ones whose information can always be trusted," she added, opening her left eye slightly to examine Stanford. Gleaning little from the side of his face, she continued on, but kept that sliver of sight trained on him. "Every Sentient has three highest-ranking Diads, who pass on their instructions on to the lower-ranking Diads. Beta Diad is the lowest of those three, while Alpha is next highest, and Alpha Prime is the top, second only to the Masters themselves."

Another silence elapsed before Stanford found another angle to approach from. "What made Praxion release Krytus? Surely he was aware of the danger –"

"I have no certainties to what made Omega Blue Diad Praxion turn traitor," she announced, finally opening her eyes to glare steadily at the human. "I only have theories, and until his body can be recovered and his systems examined, they will remain theories. However, as you seem mentally fixated on his betrayal, I can offer my most _compos mentis_ belief: That being the only remaining member of his kind in Modulon 5 – a city overrun by Vandals – made him turn to Krytus in his misguided belief that he was the only hope for the Sentients and Diads to regain rule over the planets. He had always been at the bottom of the pack when he still served the Blue Sentients, so perhaps ambition drove him as well, but I think he may have simply become mad in the face of the fall of his people and Masters – a people many believed, including each other, were perfect."

Once again the rock 'n' roll station took over the sound of the Reverb's interior, but not for long. A beeping sound started from the display, and Choza finally allowed the frown she'd been saving appear on her face when she leaned forward to check. "It appears we have someone following us. And from what your scanners are saying, it isn't someone in a Sentient vehicle."

Stanford shut off the radio (much to Choza's relief) and checked his rearview mirror. "Crap. It's Sheriff Johnston, the most idiotic police officer to walk the Earth."

"I take it you don't like him?" the Black Diad said shrewdly, what passed for eyebrows rising up to her forehead.

"It's wouldn't be so bad if he was just an officer," the purple-clad Artillery Officer explained, already slowing down, "but he's got it out for us! He gave me a ticket just for playing music in the desert! Come to think of it," he added as an afterthought, "that might explain why he's pulling us over now."

"Is that against Human laws in this area?"

"Not to my knowledge."

"Hmph," she snorted; her newfound distain for Johnston was written on her face, plain as day. "Another one of those zealous law enforcers, eager to rub his power into the faces of beings under his jurisdiction. Allow me to deal with him," she added, watching the speedometer drop from forty-five miles per hour to thirty, than twenty, then fifteen.

"Be my guest," the British boy said, too busy watching his rearview mirror and working on an explanation for whatever the Sheriff might try to ticket him for this time to fully register what his passenger had requested – at least not until they had come to a stop. "Hold on … wait! He'll –"

"Trust me on this, Stanford," she said sternly. She'd had enough blustering from Rhodes to let him interfere now. Her eyes remained fixed on the roof. "If you can keep your mouth shut and do as I say, we may be able to get past 'Sheriff Johnston' without much trouble – and minus a 'ticket' he seems to enjoy giving out to you."

In the rearview mirror, the police car had also come to a stop about fifteen feet away, lights still flashing; it was impossible to say if the siren was still wailing, as the soundproof cab of the Reverb was still tightly sealed. The door opened, allowing the sunglasses-wearing, slightly portly Sheriff to step out into the desert.

"Which is worse to you?" the Diad continued, eyes flicking from Stanford to the roof to the mirror and then back to Stanford. "Trusting me – or the Sheriff?"

The Brit glanced at the rearview mirror again, than relented silently. Nodding, Choza activated the roof, sliding it back so she could climb out of the car when she was prepared. Turning her face away from the human in the driver's seat, her eyes turned from purple to blinding silver-white, then unbuckled herself and climbed onto the seat, giving her a boost and allowing her head to breach the opening and be exposed to the mid-morning sunlight.

Whatever had been on Sheriff Johnston's lips before Choza had revealed herself died before leaving them. In astonishment, he moved to the passenger side of the Reverb, eyes fixed on the almost nebulous-black figure who was peering back at him with brightly-glowing eyes.

Choza's breathing was calm and even, as opposed to Stanford's worried pants from below. In her mind, she whispered to the Sheriff: _Take off the shades, take off the shades, take off the shades …_

Once he was opposite of the Black Diad, Johnston did take off his glasses, revealing his somewhat-unnerving orbs. "What on earth –"

That was as far as he got before a white flash erupted from the Alpha Prime's blinding eyes, rendering him briefly sightless; it got Stanford a bit, but not to the extent as the older man. Choza maintained her glow for a few moments, then dropped back down into her seat and buckled up again. "Drive," she ordered.

Still startled, the teen put the Reverb into gear while sealing the roof, leaving Sheriff Johnston in their dust, still standing like a wax statue in the desert. "What was that?"

"The function I used would translate from my language into English as 'shutterfly'. It consists of a flash that leads to temporary blindness and paralysis, which fully abates in ten Earth minutes. Afterwards, the target cannot recall the events leading up to being blinded, unless the user undoes the effects of the shutterfly." Choza smiled slightly as she turned the radio on again, leaving the station alone. "Your adversary back there will not remember seeing me, you, or the Reverb in today's events. Once the effects wear off, he will wonder why he is standing alone in the desert, get back into his car, and go about his day – though the side-effects may lead to him not picking on you or the rest of the Five for some time afterward."

"Brilliant!" Stanford enthused. He hesitated for a moment, then added contritely, "Thanks, love." An equally repentant smile appeared on his face, and while Choza knew he still didn't fully trust her, his doubts had been reduced somewhat.

"No problem."

The moment was interrupted by a new alarm, accompanied by Sage's voice.

"Stormshock approaching!" she warned, and just like that, the air shifted to a business-like one. The comm unit suddenly became alive with the voices of the other BF5 members, who had switched back to the previous channel; Choza looked shrewdly at Stanford, then unbuckled herself and activated her camouflage unit, disguising herself as a human girl roughly Zoom's age.

The BF5 swung back into formation around the Reverb, the Mauy Thai fighter hanging close to the purple sports car. The roof reopened and the Diad clambered out, balancing on the edge slightly before leaping perfectly onto the back of the Chopper, wrapping her arms tightly around his waist to hang on.

The plan was for Zoom to take the lead in the stormshock, with Choza riding with him so she could launch her program at the right time. As Stanford closed the roof, the dust devil that unlocked gateways to other worlds came into view, grabbing sand and debris and flinging it towards the sky.

"Best of luck," were Sage's last words before they entered the vortex, all five cars falling into a tight bunch upon a road none of them could truly see. Choza squinted through the lightning and gales as Zoom carried her up, calling her chibi-Master Key into her hand as a black cube and focusing on the Battlezone they needed.

There! At the perfect time, the Black Diad flung her Key before the Chopper, ripping open a gate to beyond and riding through.

**XxX**

The portal dumped them into a lush area of grassland, bordered by forests and having streams criss-cross the land with shining bands of water. Around them were giant stone slabs, arranged in a circular pattern into blocky arches, some of them falling down or crumbling.

"This looks like …" Stanford began, looking around at the ruins.

"Stonehenge?" finished Sherman. "It does."

"We can sight-see later," Vert said impatiently. "We find the Battlekey, we find Metaturra, and we get out, hopefully without a fight."

"Relax, Vert," Choza said, climbing off the Chopper and stretching. "In this Battlezone I doubt you'll find enemies, save the ones in this Battlezone. The Sark can't be distracted from Krytus right now, and the Vandals are trying to decide who will rule their clans. They won't show up."

Choza said it so confidently the others believed her – for a moment. Then their scanners started going haywire.

"What's the source?" Agura yelled into the comm. Inside the Buster, the two Tech Support officers were reading what their scanners were reporting – and what they were reporting was bad news. "We've got company," Spinner conveyed to the rest. "About six figures to the west, less than a mile from us."

"Can you get a reading on them?" Vert asked.

"Negatory," his brother replied. "The trees are interfering with our scanners; we can pick up cars but not who they belong to."

By now, Choza had retrieved a pair of binoculars and – with them slung about her neck – began to climb the ruin blocks. How that was possible on the smooth stone was up to debate, since she was doing so as easily as a monkey could climb a tree.

Once she reached the top of one of the tallest arches, Choza lifted the visual aids to her eyes and turned to the west. By now the BF5 had noticed her activities, and were craning their necks to keep her in view.

"Got a twenty on them?" the blonde human called up to her.

"Affirmative. The trees are blocking my view somewhat, but not too badly. It shouldn't be too hard to …"

Her voice quite abruptly trailed off, an air of disbelief surrounding her new silence. For a moment, the quiet lingered, than Spinner stuck his head out of the Buster's turret and called up. "Choza? You okay?"

"My body is perfectly normal," came the reply. "I am merely … startled by what I am seeing."

"Which is …?" Zoom let his question hang.

"Remember what I said about how I doubted that Vandals would be here?"

Agura got a sinking feeling in her stomach as she replied, "Yeah, what about it?" She could tell where this was going … and it didn't look good.

"In the face of evidence to the contrary, I am forced to retract that statement." Her violet eyes parted from the binoculars and met theirs, all humor and innocence to be replaced by grim seriousness. "We're not alone here."

**XxX**

In the center of their makeshift campsite, surrounded by four vehicles and streams of freshwater was a small fire, lit only for a sense of comfort in this strange place. Two figures – a male wolf-humanoid and a female cat-humanoid – were the only ones standing; two others of their kind, along with two that resembled a bird and a spider, were sitting on logs, curled up in the long grass, or sitting on the hoods of the vehicles.

Vuk – the male wolf Vandal in the center – glared at the one standing opposite of him; Zuri returned the glare evenly from her position on the other side of the fire. His mate, Ylva, was curled up on the ground, her head in her paws as she tried to slumber in the thralls of pregnancy. The arachnid Vandal Gang, his black mandibles clicking a tuneless ditty, was using his silk to weave a splint for Zuberi's sprained wrist, paying no heed to the snarls of pain from the bulky feline as the witch doctor tightened the bindings. Perched upon the hood of Gang's Spitter was the final member of their group, the young Vandal Sarika, cleaning her feathers with her cruel beak.

_A motley crew, to be sure, _thought Vuk with grim humor. None of them had wanted to end up in a Battlezone – mere chance had brought them together when they were traveling to their main encampment on Vandal to decide on their new Warlord, and it had been dumb luck that had made them the only ones around (coincidentally, not one of them had an identity module built into their vehicles, since none of them had passed through a Battlezone before this) when a tornado that was a stormshock had whipped up in the forests of their world and swept them into this strange realm.

It wasn't that they didn't know anything about these realms between worlds – before his defeat at the hands of a younger male, Vuk had been the leader of his clan, and Zuri knew even more than he did – they just had never been part of a party to capture Battlekeys, being more occupied with other matters than such avenues. Now their foolhardiness left them trapped in this Zone, and unless they could get the Key, they would have no way to return.

Some of them needed to return more than others, Zuri being the prime example. After a few moments, she abandoned her glaring contest with the wolf Vandal and went back to pacing a muddy trail in the emerald grass, her clawed feet digging up clumps of soggy loam and clogging her pads. Vuk left his position by the fire to throw a few more logs onto the blaze, then knelt beside his mate and did his best to sooth Ylva to sleep.

"Pacing will get us nowhere," Gang clicked at the cat Vandal. "Only retrieving the Battlekey will open the portal back to Vandal." As he finished with the bulkier member of her clan, Zuberi rose back to his feet, beginning to test his movements with the new silk wrapping. The witch doctor also stood up, using his last four legs to support his body while the other four did manual work.

Zuri's nostrils flared, her amber eyes narrowing in a threatening glare. "My clan has looked to me as their leader since Kalus' death. As we speak, the clans are converging to decide who shall be our new Warlord. And here we are, unable to gain the Key, losing our will! What are we: sub-species?"

Ylva lifted her head in anger, pulling back her lips to reveal her pointed teeth. "Your mate's status seems to have gone to your head, Zuri – I will not venerate you with your title of 'the Beautiful'." The wolf Vandal managed to climb to her feet, her ragged armor highlighting her swollen belly. Vuk hovered close to his mate, but she brushed him off, her yellow eyes glaring daggers at the frozen Zuri. "Kalus was no great leader – a fearsome one, perhaps, but the subspecies defeated him far too many times to be acceptable. Will the clans accept such a failure's mate as their Warlord?"

Zuri snarled a challenge, unsheathing her claws and gathering herself to spring. A screech from Sarika, however, stopped them as they looked to the sky. The hawk Vandal was in the air, her great wings outstretched to embrace the sky, her powerful eyes sweeping the ground below.

"What is it?" Zuberi roared up to her. "What do you see?" 

"The subspecies! They are here, at the ruins!"

_The subspecies!_ Zuri's desire to kill them overrode her current anger at Vuk's mate. They were the ones who had been partly responsible for the death of her mate, the great Captain Kalus, and by her teeth and claws, she would make sure they would pay.

Without waiting for the others to try and strategize, she flung herself into her Fangore, making the engine sputter, than roar, to life. She tore forwards, pulling a wide turn in the stream, flinging water into a wave as she turned east towards where the hateful ones were. From the accompanying roars, she could tell the others were following her charge.

Her clawed fingers wrapped around the stem of her mate's war horn. She had recovered it from his vehicle on the Sentient planet, helping pull his stiffening body out from the rubble that had killed him for burial. She had mended it as best as she could, alone in the hut they had called their home in their time bound in matrimony – some would call it imprudent, as only the Warlord could carry it without being judged as scandalous by others – but she was determined to be Kalus' successor to his own title, to gain control over the clans in a manner that went beyond her authority as his mate in his glory days.

Some would call it shallow for her to want this, to have become Kalus' mate merely because of his power and status. But she was clever and cunning, far more than most Vandals: Kalus had counted her as his chief advisor while alive. If she gained the title he had carried, she would lead the clans to greatness across the multiverse. She knew it was possible.

Zuri the Beautiful rose the horn to her lips and emitted three blasts from it, making the wildlife in the bushes and grass scatter at the sound.

**XxX**

shejams: A movie, eh? Well, I'm not sure how it'll go over, but I'll drop a line over there and see if the studios use it. (lol jk, I'd rather not)

Calm-Waters: The funny thing is that prior to writing Chapter Two, I'd only watched about three minutes of Episode 9. =P

Anyway, school starts for me tomorrow, so I'll be seeing all of you readers/reviewers/subscribers/favers (there are a lot of you in those last two categories XD) whenever I finish Chapter Four. =D

-Inferna


	5. Wild Nature's Release

Wild Nature's Release

"Hey, wait! Wait up!"

Choza's cries fell on deaf (or blocked) ears: the moment the horn blasts had split the relative quiet, the Battle Force 5 had leapt into their vehicles again, gunned their engines, and torn off, leaving the Alpha Prime Diad in their dust at the ruins, yelling indignantly after them.

_Another reason I need my Shifter back,_ she thought crossly, clambering down the stone slabs and standing back on the soft ground, her weight causing the silicone-based life-form to sink into the muddy earth. _Comm units – I really miss those now. _

Glancing up, she noticed the hawk Vandal that had been at the camp circling high above her head, and pressed herself against the lee side of the arch, willing her camouflage unit to turn her body to the same shade of grey. If the Vandals knew she – a powerful Diad, right-hand of an entity that could bend the Battlezones to her will – was present, it could put herself, the Five, and her Mistress into greater danger than they already were.

Upon her area scans – their range had doubled upon reentering the Zones, along with increasing her strength and her height by slight measures – she observed the fights taking place in the River Delta Battlezone. Vert and Zoom were tag-teaming the strange spider Vandal, whose grotesque vehicle was spitting webs from the bizarre nozzles in the front, threatening to entangle their wheels. Agura was helping Stanford against the two cats in their Fangores, who were working together better than Kalus' crew of goons ever had. Meanwhile, the two brothers in their tank were against the two wolves, whose vehicle seemed much like the Buster, with the female firing projectiles while her mate steered.

And all the while, the grey-feathered female circled above. When she pressed the binoculars back against her eyes and trained her gaze upon the young female, Choza realized that she was carrying some sort of radio, and was speaking into it almost incessantly.

_She must be coordinating them, _the Black Diad thought. _With her acting as the eye in the sky, she can see traps before her brethren can, and warn them accordingly. Take her out, and they might be weakened._

It was a solid plan, with one minor flaw: she had no way of informing the Five without endangering herself, and as the Shifter's remains were currently rusting in another Battlezone, Choza couldn't execute it herself unless she got her hands on another vehicle.

Something about her last thought stuck in her head, and she mentally repeated it until an idea struck her. Turning away from the battle, the Diad looked at the ruins, scrutinizing them with deeper interest and the eye of a Keymaster's servant. The design of the ruins – apart from resembling 'Stonehenge' – was familiar to her, as there were others in the hundreds of the Battlezones she had visited in the past. Unlike the obelisks that marked the entrances to Interzones, blocky and rough structures were said to represent portals to other useful areas. All she had to do was activate the devices and see what it showed.

Taking out her miniature Master Key – which resembled a cube the color of deep space – Choza moved to a rectangular pillar that stood in the center of the circle, pressing the Key into an indent that matched it almost perfectly. Below her, the ground rumbled and drew back, revealing a metal plate she instantly stepped onto, recalling her Key as it sank down below; above her head, the grass that disguised the entrance moved back into place.

_Level B1: hidden Sentient area. Have a nice day._

When the lift finally settled onto the floor below, Choza stepped through the sliding doors, her purple eyes widening at what she saw. To her, it seemed that she had stepped into a miniature Hub, or the inside of a Mobius Command Center, located beneath these 'Stonehenge'-centric ruins.

She knew what these were, naturally – she had visited similar places in the past with Metaturra. Built by the original Keymasters, they were meant to act as waystations between worlds. With the decline of the Black Sentients and Black Diads, most of the site locations had been forgotten by even the last of them.

Hurrying over to the computers, Choza checked the power levels. Low; less than 25%. She made a mental note to have this station attended to once they could, but for now, it was enough to serve the purpose she required of it.

Triangles were the sacred shape of the Sentients; therefore, hexagons were the figures that Diads held dear. From herself, Choza withdrew such a shape, the color of her eyes with a black Diad symbol meaning "Alpha Prime" gleaming upon it. Pressing it into the interface, she turned to face the open space behind her, smiling as the dormant machines hummed to life.

As the incendium chip fed the information about her soulless ex-vehicle into the computers, the machines began to rebuild it better than ever. As it took shape, she remembered what Metaturra had said to her when the original Shifter had been built: _"As my Alpha Prime, I will need you to adapt for the missions I ask you to carry out. It is only fitting that your vehicle will do the same for you."_

"The Shifter 2.0," she proclaimed out loud, sealing the bond between rider and vehicle as the process was complete. Retrieving her incendium chip from the computers that once again sunk into dormancy, Choza moved to sit upon the new Shifter, which was in the shape of a human motorcycle similar to Zoom's Chopper, save that the colors were different. She revved the engine, felt it make the bike vibrate with its purrs, and grinned.

_I'm back in the race._

**XxX**

High above the battles on the ground, hawk Vandal Sarika and her blazing yellow eyes watched the fracas below, secure in the knowledge that nothing that could escape her eyes. As she monitored the ground, she noted that the subspecies seemed to be flagging somewhat – though then again, the only members of their kind they had faced on a regular basis was Kalus' gang of idiots, and they used different vehicles. The closest ones to any of them were the Fangores that Zuri and her cousin Zuberi rode in, and both of them had styles different then the deceased member of their clan.

_Why do you remain faithful to him? _she asked of the ex-Warlord's widow silently, being careful to keep them from escaping her beak into the radio. _Kalus was a failure. Even you admit it to Zuberi, when you think the two of you are alone. You are cleverer than he ever was – why did you choose to be his mate, even though he was the new Warlord when you were wed?_

A faint roar tore her mind from her thoughts and her eyes from Gang's near-successful attempt to entangle the smaller rider he faced, the one with his body exposed, and turned her eyes on Vuk and Ylva's two-person ride, thinking they might have made the noise while fighting their subspecies (who drove a blue vehicle similar to their own tank), but there was no billow of smoke from their tailpipes that indicated they had activated an oily smokescreen.

Puzzled, the younger Vandal swept her gaze across the Battlezone, trying to pinpoint the source, than froze abruptly as she saw the ruins again. A panel of grass leading towards the deltas was sliding back towards the stone structures, like it was rolling on wheels.

As she watched, a vehicle similar to the small subspecies' ripped out, colored deepest violet and dull black. Mounted upon the seat was – Sarika blinked a few times to make sure she wasn't dreaming, but there it was: the rider was what looked like a Sentient, darker-colored than the Blue Sentient that backed the subspecies.

Reckless excitement filled her – if she could capture this Sentient-being and bring her back to Vandal (after they gained the Battlekey, of course, and the captive could and would facilitate that), she might be able to advance her clan leader, maybe even garner enough support for him that he could be the Warlord: the first their clan had had since Gods knew when, and that could give the Vandals all they needed to conquer Earth. Her problems would be the capture itself and keeping the credit for her people, as ambitious Zuri would undoubtedly try to claim the glory and advance herself.

Turning off her radio – it wouldn't do for the others to hear her observations, after all – she folded her wings and plunged towards the ground, talons outstretched to snatch the Sentient-being.

**XxX**

Choza's scanners picked up the hawk Vandal almost immediately after she left the mini-Hub. About three seconds after launch, one second after the exit had sealed behind her, the aforementioned female went into a dive, charging after her at top speed. The Diad accelerated in response, knowing that she had to lead off the Vandal and keep her attention focused on the new enemy. The eyes on her speeding back meant the Five could fight a more even battle, as each meant there was one less optic nerve trained on the humans.

Revving the Shifter up, she plunged into the forestland to the east, where the trees were wide enough to allow her enemy to race above her stay within her sights. The heavy-treaded metal wheels crushed the foliage beneath her, and once she rocketed out of the pines, Sarika swept close and attempted to nail the Alpha Prime.

Choza spotted the danger and activated the function that had given her Shifter its name – she dimension-hopped, sliding into a different plane of existence, while the Vandal remained on the previous plane. After she accelerated with the help of her thrusters, she hopped back onto original Zone plane; to the startled Sarika, it was like her mark had teleported several wingspans ahead of her wicked talons.

Despite this advantage, Choza felt it would be best to just take out her opponent, instead of lead her on – at any moment, the hawk might chose to return to her post. With that in mind, the Black Diad aimed towards another delta, which seemed rather muddy on the shores – if she timed it right, the chase could be over in instants.

Kicking on her short-term thrusters, the Shifter 2.0 roared forward to the mudbanks, the falcon gaining altitude above her for another strike. Sarika dove just before Choza reached her desired point of attack, and purposely put herself into a hard, abrupt turn at her top normal speed of 125 Human miles per hour. The tire treads recalibrated to grip the slippery terrain, but her impression of a top did the damage – it flung the mire she kicked up at the bird, who screeched out in rage as the water-dirt mix obscured her vision.

Just as quickly as she started, the mud was replaced with water from the delta; she canceled her spin and carved a wide turn. Sarika had landed to try and clean out her eyes (clearly, she had not gotten the memo that doing so in the middle of a fight was a bad idea), making the giant raptor a target. Smiling, Choza flicked another switch, and her headlight turned from red to white-silver – the same color as her "shutterfly" function – before it fired a similar flash at the Vandal.

Even blinded by mud, the paralyzing wave did its' job, making the grey-feathered female fall over and ruin her perfectly-clean feathers in the muck. Screeching to a halt, the Alpha Prime Diad knocked her kickstand into place and stepped off, paying no heed to her soiled feet as she crossed the distance between her and her enemy. After checking her heartbeat to make sure the shock had not killed her (it _was_ known to happen, though the occurrence was rare – while her enemy was annoying, she had not intended to end the young female's life), she strapped the paralyzed female to the seat of the Shifter 2.0, mounted again, and took off.

The "shutterfly" function on the Shifter lasted for nearly fifteen Earth minutes, and that would be more than enough time to find the Five again and help them against the remaining Vandals – assuming they had not already beaten them. Leaning over her handlebars, Choza raced back towards the battleground, unwilling passenger in tow.

**XxX**

As it turned out, her assistance was quite unneeded. By the time the Five's vehicles came back into visual range, Choza realized that the other five Vandals were corralled by the Sentient cars, their own means of transportation just outside the circle. Stanford's sonic blasters were leveled directly at the huddled group, who seemed to be conversing in their own native tongue – most likely trying to foist the blame for their defeat on someone other than themselves. _Such a normal thing for them to do – without a strong leader to lead them, they are reduced to rabble._

The roar of the Shifter's engine drew the attention of all eleven organic beings. As they watched, Choza slid into an open space between Zoom and Agura, disengaging the bindings that held Sarika to the back of her seat and flung her into the knot of Vandals, who got out of the way of the paralyzed female as fast as they could.

Ignoring the stares she was getting from all concerned, the Diad brushed nonexistent bangs out of her face, wiped the grime off her feet, and as cool as a cucumber said, "Sorry about the surprise entrance, friends – considering the fact I had that glorified vulture chasing me since I got my Shifter back, I think I can be forgiven for not radioing you."

Still silence. She let it drag on for a few moments longer, than sighed in exaggerated impatience and added, "Come on, you _must _have been talking about _something_ before I showed up. Was I really that impressive in my arrival?"

"It was, actually – sorta," Vert admitted, walking around the front of the Saber, making sure he was on the side that kept the metal walls of his red car between him and the Vandals. "I thought you said you had lost the Shifter."

"This," she replied, patting the handbars fondly, "is the Shifter 2.0. I got it from an old Keymaster station beneath those ruins we came out at. But enough about me – what's with them?"

She punctuated her question by indicating the six Vandals in the center of the pen. By now, Sarika had recovered from the effects of the "shutterfly" and had regained the use of her limbs, stretching out her sullied wings awkwardly. The female cat seemed to be helping her, but Choza's knowledge of the Vandal tongue enabled her to realize that the words streaming from that powerful jaw were vitriolic, instead of reassuring, in nature.

"We were actually hoping you could help us with that," Sherman offered. "They haven't spoken in anything but their native language since we beat them, so we can't tell why they're here."

Choza caught the implication and nodded assent. Swinging herself off the Shifter and leaving it in the care of Zoom (who seemed to find the machine highly interesting, if his glances towards it were anything to go by), the Diad made her way to the Vandal band, who had gone back to disputing over who was to blame for the failure. From what she was hearing, the major amount of blame was falling onto the youngest female, though the cat-woman and wolf-man seemed to be getting some of it, too.

The latter was the first to notice Choza's approach; his yellow eyes narrowed as he saw the Diad draw near. _"What do you want?" _he snarled in his throat, not speaking in English.

"_Only to know what you are doing here,"_ the Alpha Prime replied in the same tongue.

"_We didn't come here on purpose," _snapped the female wolf Vandal. Choza's scan of her and the male gave her information that came from her Mistress' database. According to them, the male – called Vuk – had been the leader of their clan before a younger male had overthrown him and his mate, Ylva; the picture of the female nearly matched the appearance of the heavily-pregnant woman before her. _"The stormshock swept us into this Battlezone, and we lack the means to return. We thought you may have held the Key to return to our people."_

"_Then why did you attack the humans?"_ "Human" was not a term in the native speech of Vandals; instead, when Choza referred to her allies, she spoke of them the way Kalus and his group had: as "subspecies".

Before Ylva or Vuk could reply, the female cat cut them off with her own harsh words. _"They share the blame for my mate's death with Zemerik," _she snarled. Choza didn't need her database to know who she was – Zuri the Beautiful, Kalus' widow and de facto leader of their clan after his death in Modulon 5. Thought to have partly inspired Kalus' climb to Warlord due to a boast by her parents (that their daughter was too beautiful to be the mate of "anyone but a Warlord"), she had shared rule of their clan with her cousin, Zuberi – whom Choza saw just behind Zuri – and was considered a prime candidate to be the new Warlord because of her cunning.

"_Perhaps they do,"_ Choza allowed, keeping part of her attention on Sarika – whose father was the leader of one of the smallest Vandal clans – and Gang – the spider Vandal with a reputation as a powerful witch doctor – as she did. _"But would killing them bring him back from the dead, or get you out of the Battlezone? From what you have told me, you do not have identity modules to reopen your portal, and you do not seem to know the Battlekey's location. Killing the humans would be a hollow, worthless victory."_

"_We know where the Key is," _Gang amended from his position near the back, where he was attending to Sarika's limbs. _"We cannot reach it; that is our problem." _

Before Choza could ask further, Vuk signaled for a moment to speak privately, than conferred with the other Vandals in murmurs too low for the Black Diad to hear. After a few minutes, he turned back to the Diad. _"I think an arrangement can be made," _he said calmly, ignoring the low growl issuing from Zuri's mouth. _"We know where the Key is, but we cannot get it. You possess the means to get it, and we do not have the influence with the clans to start an invasion of Earth. If you and your allies will retrieve the Key and open the portal back to Vandal for us, we will go in peace, with our people none the wiser for our treachery."_

"_Can I trust you not to be lying, or to double-cross myself and my allies?"_

A pause followed, than Zuri allowed reluctantly, _"We will drive ahead of you and the Earth-people, so your eyes will remain on us at all times."_

"_Very well."_

With that, Choza returned to the Five, making sure her back was not turned to them in case they decided not to uphold their word. The humans looked expectantly to her with puzzled expression (clearly, she was the only one who knew the Vandal tongue), and she relayed her findings back to them.

"I think they can be trusted – Vuk, Ylva, and Gang, at least," she amended, indicating to each Vandal in turn. "I'm not sure about the other three, though, Zuri in particular. They will go first and bring us to the Battlekey – if we open the portal to their world for them to cross back over. They will only do so if we meet that condition."

"How do we know we can keep them at their word?" came the obvious question, originating from Stanford. Choza had to admit he had a very good point – in almost every instance the Vandals had made an alliance with another faction, be it with the Five or the Sark, the Vandals had been the ones to break that alliance. However, she would rather being allied with the Vandals, if only for a short amount of time, than fighting them for a Key.

She voiced this out loud, and Vert seemed to share her sentiments. However, she added on, "I wouldn't put it past them to try and get their claws on the Key once its' taken, especially with an ambitious harpy like Zuri in their midst. All of them would love to get the Key, if only to self-glorify themselves and their clans. Your call, Vert."

A moment passed, than the blonde gave his reply. "Tell … Vuk that we accept his terms, but it doesn't mean we trust him."

Choza turned back to the huddle of Vandals and conveyed Vert's words in the language of snarls and growls that the Vandals learned from childhood. Vuk replied with a sequence of low howls as the six rose to their feet; the BF5 instantly tensed for a fight, but none of the captives made threatening moves beyond that. The Diad translated the reply: "He understands your hesitation, and only asks for you to let them into their vehicles so they may lead you to the Battlekey."

The humans made a path out of the corral even as the Alpha Prime returned to her Shifter. Sarika settled herself onto the roof of Gang's car as the overgrown arachnid himself got in; the Vandals took off, as the six cars of the Battle Force Five (and Choza) followed close behind.

**XxX**

Vuk and his group halted at the edge of a giant waterfall, which tumbled over a cliff and into a large river, which continued to flow towards the unknown sea on the horizon. Hovering about ten yards off from the cliff face was the Battlekey, its' body glowing with an aquamarine hue.

From this viewpoint, Vert could see why the Vandals might have trouble retrieving it – if they didn't have a member who could fly. Surely the falcon girl – Sarika, as Choza had informed them earlier – would be able to fly over and snatch it with her appendages, or Gang could grab it with his webs, right?

The Black Diad seemed to have the same thoughts as him, as she turned towards Vuk's tank as they parked side-by-side, speaking once again in the Vandal language. Once the wolf had given his answer, she turned back to the Battle Force Five and said, "Vuk says there is some sort of energy barrier that wraps around the Key. Sarika and Gang cannot penetrate it, nor can their grapplers pull it through."

"Sherman, Spinner, what do your scanners say about it?" the driver of the Saber asked.

From inside the Buster, the two blue-clad boys scanned the Key and came up with a confirmation that the Vandal was telling the truth about it. As a field test, Choza dismounted from the Shifter, scooped up a pebble, and flung it hard at the Key. Before it could strike the cerulean Battlekey, it bounced off an invisible barrier, which briefly became noticeable to their eyes like ripples on a pond.

Vert sat back against the driver's seat, considering the options. None of the BF5's vehicles were equipped to breach force fields, and from the expression of pain on the young female Vandals' face, neither were the mutated animals. Of course, they hadn't taken Choza's motorcycle into account yet, and if it was called the Shifter …

"Choza – why is your bike called the Shifter?" Agura asked before him, apparently having come to the same conclusion as him. The Diad looked surprised, than replied, "It can dimension-hop – briefly slid onto a different plane of existence." A half-moment later, she got what the other female was driving at, and laughed, the sound like tiny bells. "Clever, Agura … Sherman, Spinner, can you position the Buster's ramp so it faces the Key?"

"On it." As the Cortez brothers began to adjust their angle – making the Vandals pull out of the way – Stanford interjected with a new problem. "Hang on a moment, love – even if you get the Key, how will you keep from crashing?"

Choza only smiled as she mounted onto the Shifter again. "I have my ways," she said softly, as she turned around and got some distance. "Just make sure the Vandals can't interfere and try and get the Key when I land."

Once a good expanse of water and grass had been placed between the Shifter and the Buster's ramp, Choza turned again, angled herself so she would hit the mark. "Going in three … two … one … NOW!"

On her last word, the Diad gunned the engine, doing the best a cyclist could do when it came to putting the pedal to the metal. The Shifter's engine roared in reply, and she powered down the alley to the target.

On the other side of the range, the spectators were watching nervously, Vuk, Ylva, and Gang keeping their kind from being up front (Sarika had been webbed up so she couldn't fly, much to her indignation). When one meter stood between the ramp and the Shifter, Choza fired the thrusters for extra oomph, sending her rocketing up and into the air towards the Key.

For Choza, time seemed to slow down. As she came close to the energy field – which her scanners had indicated was in the shape of a sphere fifteen meters in diameter – she "shifted" to the other plane of existence, vanishing from the onlooker's point of view and leaving the obstruction behind. As the Key shape came into view, she snared it with her magnetic beam, even as she produced her mini-Master Key. Once she had gained enough air time to make it through the field, she returned to the other plane and into mortal view, combining chibi-Master Key and Battlekey as she did.

Power flowed through her as she clutched the fusion, and willed that power to be channeled into something that could preserve her bike and herself. She bade the Battlezone to alter to her specifications, raising a stone road in mid-air to drive back to the cliff, where the startled humans and Vandals waited and watched.

Zuri was too amazed to react to the capture of the Battlekey until her cousin hit her; by then, the Diad was already back with her allies and had separated the Keys. In the Vandal tongue she cried out gleefully, "Lead us, Vandals, to where you came out! We will abide by our promise to you!"

Vuk and Ylva drove off, with Zuberi, Gang, and Sarika following. Not wishing to remain in the Battlezone any longer, Zuri the Beautiful followed, seething. She had lost a chance to capture the Key and the Diad – all in all, not a good day, since they might have given her the edge she needed to be Warlord. However, none but this group would ever know of this degrading position they had put themselves in, and she would make sure it stayed that way.

_Mark my words, subspecies, _she silently vowed, _I will have my revenge._

**XxX**

After the Vandals had been sent back on their way (Zuri and Sarika still glowering at them, though they paid little heed to that), Choza brought the BF5 down a trail to the waterfall pool, and then behind the falls themselves to a cave. There, she merged her Master Key with the Battlekey, directed it into a new portal, and led them through.

The portal led to a garage-like room, sterile white in color, with machines flashing silently along the walls around them. A staircase of the same plastic-like substance was on the far side of the room, leading to a door large enough to allow two people Sherman's size to walk in side-by-side.

The thing that struck them was the silence. Even in the Hub back on Earth, it had hardly been quiet, even at night while they slept. There had always been some noise going on – the humming of machines, the sounds of Spinner playing his video games late into the night, Stanford experimenting with new Reverb programs as quietly as he could. This Hub was utterly silent save for the sounds they themselves made.

"Its' quiet," Zoom finally said, looking around carefully.

"Too quiet," Choza echoed in a clichéd manner, traces of fear on her face. "There's always noise going on in here. Even when the other Keymasters died, there was always something loud. This is … unnatural."

All her young-girl tones vanished from her voice in the face of her worries. "We may be too late." The words _too late _echoed eerily in the huge, empty room.

**XxX**

Since I haven't got any replies I haven't responded to already, has anyone else seen this YouTube video?

.com/watch?v=eTAXqRzJHIM

From what I can gather from the trailer, Zemerik is dead, Kalus and Co. are (seemingly) alive, and Krytus has already sprung other Red Sentients from the Krypt Zone – which royally screws over my theories and the plot of Keymasters, if I was basing it off canon. However, since I don't care about canon when it comes to fanfiction, I'll just keep writing this like I never saw it. =P

On a lighter note about that trailer, WOOT FEMALE RED SENTIENTS AND SEASON TWO IS ALMOST HERE! (This Saturday at 10:30 AM!) =D *happy-dances*

-Inferna


	6. The Catalyst

The Catalyst

It took a few minutes before any member of the group was able to psyche themselves up to leave the garage. Once they did, though, they stayed in a group, Choza leading while a thoroughly creeped-out Stanford and Spinner made up the rear, jumping at shadows. (Why they were so nervous was open to debate, though Agura would've laid her bets on the fact the two had been watching a horror movie marathon the night before.)

The stairway out led to a circular room, the floor having six rays of light fanning out from an amethyst disk set in the center. When Spinner finally entered, the door sealed behind them automatically as the Diad stepped onto the disk. With a shudder, the floor began to rise up the shaft, a single light illuminating the vertical space.

The elevator stopped in another huge room, which resembled Sage's Hub in the fact a Battle Key pillar was located in the center, albeit skinnier than the other back home. Machines and computers flanked the column on all sides, with two corridors branching off from the sides of either wall.

Like the rest of the Hub they had seen, it was utterly silent except for their breathing; only a few lights were on, and the computers were offline. While the BF5 were looking around worriedly, Choza made a beeline for the pillar, activating its mechanisms and letting the outer shell slide away from the inner sanctum.

The Vault was completely empty.

"The Master Keys are gone," she murmured, her low words carrying in the dim silence as she turned back to face the humans. "Someone has taken them, but the question is – who?"

Her words spoken, she began to walk back towards the Five – but she got no further than three steps, before a guided missile blurred out from behind a machine and slammed into the Alpha Prime, sending her flying between two devices.

The abrupt attack snapped the Battle Force Five out of their passive modes and into fighting stances. When they ran to see what was going, they were greeted by a blur of black before it solidified into Choza, who appeared to be holding down a hissing, spitting Diad.

"Alpha Black Diad Whyer!" she barked, her tone changed into one carrying authority, all mischievous undercurrents gone. "What is the meaning of this?"

Whyer froze abruptly, his eyes – which were a paler shade of purple than the female's – wide as he twisted his head to try and get a better view of the one pinning him. "Choza?" he asked weakly, his voice like that of a tenor opera singer that had cracked their voice. "Is … is it you?"

"Of course it's me," she said crossly. "Why wouldn't I be myself?"

Anemic relief appeared in the smaller Diad's eyes. "Thank the Council." He abruptly began struggling again, but Choza released her captive, stepping back as he flipped over, facing the ceiling. The humans crowded around him, but Whyer's gaze was fixed upon Choza's face. "The Mistress fled two days after you were sent out, her and the others. A Red Sark army had found the Hub and was approaching. With no other course, they took the Master Keys and fled in the remaining Mobi, going deeper into the Battlezones. Metaturra did not dare go to Earth until you had reported back with knowledge of a safe haven for us to hide, so she tasked me to wait for you, with the location of her hiding place within me in the normal code. But …"

He struggled for breath, trying to continue, and Sherman noticed the angry red veins pulsing up the Alpha Diad's neck, in contrast to the muted violet ones faintly visible through Choza's black skin. Spinner spotted them at the same time, and the brothers both came to same realization. "A virus," Spinner quietly noted.

Whyer finally seemed to notice that he and his friend were not alone. "Choza…" he whispered. "Are they the Five?"

"They are. Whyer, how –?"

"When they arrived, the Sark discovered me in my hiding place and brought me to their general. Krytus was there, and tried to make me give Metaturra's location voluntarily. When I refused … he injected a virus that forced it out of me, even as it internally destroyed me. Once he had what he needed, he locked me out of the Hub systems and left with his army."

Black fire seemed to blaze in the infuriated Alpha Prime's eyes. "Is there a way to purge from your system?"

"No. Even if you could, I cannot be repaired. All I can do …" he struggled again, and to the fear of the listeners, they saw that his eyes were dimming, losing what little luster they had left. "…is give you the Mistress' last known location."

Gentle hands, belonging to Choza and Agura, cradled him in his last moments. "Tell me."

As the last energy drained out of Alpha Black Diad Whyer, he murmured, "The Catalyst … burning in the fires of a thousand suns … symphonies of blinding light."

Then he faded completely, the handsome black skin that covered his body turning white-grey as his mind gave out completely.

**XxX**

Quiet held the group for a while as Choza stroked the face of one of her dearest friends, who was now lost to her forever thanks to Krytus. Anger filled the female Diad at this unneeded death, a death Krytus had not needed to bring about – one he had enacted simply because he could.

_I'll avenge you, Whyer._

Finally, even the grieving Diad had to set aside her sadness. Her Mistress was waiting for her, after all.

"I need to move his body," she said softly, not meeting the eyes of the others. Without waiting for an answer, she slipped her arms beneath the pale body and began dragging Whyer's corpse into a corner. A pod was lying in the corner, like she had known it would be. Pulling off the glass top, she managed to maneuver the body into it, sealing away from the elements until she and her people could return and lay him to rest properly.

Straightening up from her labors, Choza forced her last traces of sorrow from her mind, focusing on what lay ahead. Turning around, she walked briskly back to the Battle Force 5, who had stayed a respectful distance back while she had carried out the task. When the Alpha Prime Diad reached them, they could see no trace of melancholy in her eyes.

"We need to find her," she said simply. Without another word, she made her way to the computer array, the others following, still stunned at the abrupt appearance and death of Whyer. The computers were offline still, but when Choza produced her mini Master Key, they came to life instantly, the lights coming on around them and on the ceiling as well.

The Diad seated herself behind the mainframe even as she began to open programs and explain what she was doing. "Whyer's last words were part of a code designed by the Keymasters, used in the case of an emergency evacuation of the Hub. The code uses song lyrics to indicate where the group has evacuated to; a high-ranking Diad would remain behind to give the code to any Keymasters that arrived after evacuation."

Triangular screens appeared in the air, and the Diad quickly pulled up what appeared to be a map. When she zoomed in on it, the BF5 realized it was a map of the Battlezones – both ones they had explored or the countless ones they were yet to discover. With a side-screen, the Alpha Prime called up what appeared to be a lyric sheet; with another, lists began to appear. "The song is of Human origin. The first part of what Whyer told us is the song title; the second part indicates what kind of Battlezone Metaturra was headed for, and the third part tells us what the Battlezone is. The second part was the line _'Will we burn inside the fires of a thousand suns'_."

"That means a Fire-themed Battlezone, correct?" Stanford suggested.

A ghost of Choza's impish smile appeared on her face. "Yes and no – it's what most would assume, but in fact they'd be wrong. The line actually refers to a Battlezone of the opposite theme: Ice, not Fire, in this case."

She fed this new data into the machines, which narrowed the options down from hundreds to a few dozen. As she worked, she added on, "The red herring was devised to capture ruffians that would attempt to steal the Master Keys. If they got this far, the Diad left behind would 'accidentally' leave the code out in the open so they could try and crack it. They almost always fell for the trick, and would walk right into a trap when they arrived in the Battlezone. Those that got it right didn't last long, though – even if they found the right Battlezone, they were facing about 25 Mobis and the occupants were always shooting to kill."

Unpleasant thoughts surfaced from that, but Choza paid no mind to the expressions on the faces of her Human allies. "The last line is _'Symphonies of blinding light'_. This narrows it to two different Battlezones: Arctic and Crystal."

The map and list vanished off their respective screens, replaced with shots of the two Zones. The Crystal Zone shone with lethal beauty in the light of the Zone's sun, while the night sky of the Arctic Zone was emblazoned with banners of light – the Aurora Borealis.

"So how do you find her now?"

"My Mistress could only go through one at a time. Whyer said she and the others fled two days after I was dispatched to find you, so I have to search for fluxes in the Multiverse's weave centered on those areas, around that time."

With all eyes fixed upon the screens, Choza switched the lyrics off and replaced it with a fill-in-the-blanks search engine. After typing in something that appeared to be in binary, results popped up almost immediately.

"The scans say that portals opened in the Arctic Battlezone at that time," she reported, swiveling around in her chair to face them. "However, the same scans indicate that Metaturra opened another portal soon after, and passed through it. It has been five days since she fled the Hub, and she may have made any number of Zone-jumps during that time."

"So how do we find her?" Zoom asked.

The Diad looked them all seriously. "Metaturra left patterns we can follow through the portals – however, it will take some time to locate her latest hiding place. I will need some extra help – Sherman, Spinner, can you provide that?"

The brothers acquiesced her request, and then the Alpha Prime addressed Vert. "It may take some time, even with Sherman and Spinner helping me. If you and others wish to use the functions of the Hub – for yourselves or your vehicles – that can be provided."

In a clear dismissal, she turned around and pulled two more seats up for the Cortez brothers, who got straight to work, opening programs none of the others could make head or tail of, since they all seemed to be written in the same binary codes as before.

**XxX**

Vert wasn't sure how long it was before he went off to explore. After Choza and the Cortez boys had gotten to work, he and the others had returned to the garage, using the time interim to make repairs to their vehicles. Out of all of them, though, he had sustained the least damage from their clash with the rogue Vandals, so it took almost no time to fix it. Boredom finally reared its ugly head, and he went back up the elevator.

The three gearheads were still hard at work; not wanting to interrupt, he walked past them through a corridor to their left. The room he found himself in was smaller than the garage and the main room, but it housed another computer. A touchscreen was in the center, emblazoned with a hand-shaped outline; with little other idea how to activate the CPU, the blonde driver pressed his right hand against it.

A series of whirrs rang in his ears, and abruptly a helmet-like apparatus dropped down from the ceiling, the empty eyeholes glowing green as they stared into his startled blue ones. A flash briefly blinded him, and then the helmet retracted, letting his clearing vision look upon the screens.

The triangular screens were written in English, instead of the binary from earlier, but they seemed to be describing some sort of base menu. Vert's eyes scrolled down the list, searching for nothing in particular, when he noticed a thumbnail labeled _Members_.

Shrugging, he tapped on the thumbnail, opening a new window. There were three sections to the page: _Keymasters, Recruits, _and _Diads._

_Hmm. Well, let's see what Metaturra's like._

He pressed his fingers against the tab, opening a list. Metaturra's files were near the top, and when he opened it, the first thing his eyes spotted was an image of a Sentient, seemingly taller and older than both Sage and Krytus. Her skin was a deeper, more lustrous black than both Choza's and Whyer's, while her eyes were the color of perfect amethysts, burning with a fire that could easily match that of the villainous Red Sentient own mini-infernos. Her appearance was so striking that Vert had a hard time tearing his eyes away; once he did, he had to hastily go back to the main menu and go to _Recruits_ so he wasn't tempted to return to her page.

Still trying to resist the urge, it was completely by accident that his eyes – blindly examining the page as he scrolled down – fell upon a name that drove his earlier concerns completely out of his brain: _Krytus_.

_What the –?_

Startled, he clicked upon the name, uncovering several images. The first was of a male Black Sentient that seemed even younger than Sage, eyes lilac in color and containing no malice; if anything, it contained curiosity and eagerness. The second was of that same Sentient, with webs of red now interweaving into the black and with different eyes: one cerulean and the other claret. His expression was twisted and tormented: one half seemed disgusted by what he had become, while the other hateful at the worlds around him.

The third was the most familiar, in a manner that saddened him: the Sentient completely Red, with eyes blazing in a feverish manner, and in them, he only saw a desire to destroy. Forcing himself to ignore the pictures, he scrolled down to the information below. The first section was dated almost ten Earth years prior to the current day:

_**Name:**__ Krytus_

_**Family: **__Axons (Blue), Twin Sister (Blue)_

_**Age: **__5 years since creation_

_**Color: **__Black (hybrid of Matter and Antimatter in one Sentient body)_

_**Gender: **__Male_

_**Keymaster Training: **__CONFIRMED. Apprenticed to High Keymaster Metaturra_

_**Personality: **__Seems to be highly curious and eager to learn. Great devotion towards family, especially to twin sister. Slight arrogance, but can easily be corrected. Intelligent and powerful, with natural talent for Battlezone control and other branches of such arts. Might be eligible to be a High Keymaster in the future; time will tell_

The next section was dated two years after the previous one:

_**Report:**__ Medical Wing_

_**Events: **__High Keymaster____Metaturra and Apprentice Krytus had been checking CoL in Pipeline Battlezone when Red pipe was ruptured. Breach was sealed, but not before Antimatter infected and began degrading Krytus' systems. Attempting to neutralize, but chances of success are unknown._

Vert almost didn't want to read the next part, since he had a sinking feeling that he knew what it detailed, but read it he did, dated about two weeks after Krytus' infection.

_**Transfer**_

_All attempts to save Apprentice Krytus from overload of Antimatter have failed. Regretfully, we must come to terms that we have done all we can for him and his family. _

_His mentor and her Alpha Prime (High Keymaster Metaturra and Choza) will transfer him to the Red Sentient Planet on the morrow. We will personally offer our condolences to his Axons and twin, but we know that will never heal the wound the loss of their own has caused them._

There remained only one other section, which seemed more like a journal entry than a bland report.

_**Krypt Zone**_

_The Blue Sentient High Council has contacted what remains of us today, on the appeal of Sage, sister of Red Sentient Krytus. None of us can deny the danger the ex-Keymaster trainee presents to us, but until now, we have not gained a true chance to capture him._

_Sage claims that Zemerik, a Sark general under Krytus, has approached her and is willing to help imprison Krytus and the Red Sentients that have come under his influence. None of us trust him enough to keep him at his word, so he must promise us this – that he not approach the Blue Sentient world with the intent of conquering it; he is free to take the Red planet, but not the Blue. _

_He has agreed to our terms – too readily, one might suggest. The five of them will be imprisoned separately, as even two of them together in the same place are the makings of a grave mistake. Krytus will be drained and sealed into the Krypt Zone, while the other four are placed in stasis in different Battlezones. Under our eye, they will never escape – assuming we can capture them in the first place._

_-Metaturra_

Unable to read more, Vert exited the program, staring blankly at the innocently-glowing screen. Before he could dwell too long on what he'd read, Choza's voice abruptly broke into his ears through an intercom.

"Destination confirmed. Everyone meet in the garage for launch."

Charging out of the room he had stood in for so long, Vert joined the Cortez boys and the Alpha Prime – who had such a hand in the whole Krytus business in the forgotten past – as they entered the elevator, which seemed way too slow now that they had a purpose.

"The most recent flux was three minutes ago, entering a Battlezone designed by the Keymasters," Choza explained as they ran into the garage. Zoom, Agura, and Stanford had all dropped their work and gotten back in their vehicles, and as she slung herself onto the Shifter's seat, the Diad continued. "It was designed as a final test for Keymaster initiates, including Diads. I doubt Krytus could get in if it was sealed, but we can bypass it to enter."

Once all concerned were ready to roll, Choza produced her Key and flung it forward, creating a portal that swirled with black energy. Trusting themselves to the Alpha Prime, the Battle Force Five roared through.

**XxX**

**Author's Note: **Just as a note, has anyone seen "Rise of the Red Sentients – Part 2"? Has anyone else noticed Krytus' interaction with Kyburi? Am I the only one who sees the potential for a KrytusxKyburi fic? =P

Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter; don't forget to hit that little "Leave a Review" button at the bottom. =P

-Inferna


	7. The Paradox Zone

The Paradox Zone

When they exited the portal, the BF5 were momentarily struck by the fact there was absolutely no natural light to be found; the only light that illuminated their surroundings was what came through the portal. With the few seconds they had before they were plunged into darkness, Agura examined their surroundings. The Battlezone – or at least the few yards she could see of it – seemed to be dominated by a circular wall, seemingly made out of metal or a black, obsidian-like stone; then the portal sealed and they were plunged into this shadow world.

A pause that lasted a few heartbeats was broken by Choza's voice over the comm. "Turn on your headlights," she said quietly.

The humans obliged, grateful for the excuse to relieve their eyes of their misery. The cave darkness had been making red dots appear in their vision, yet they had hesitated, since they feared that doing something obvious would trigger some unknown danger.

The lights made the Black Diad, mounted on her Shifter in front of them, come very much into view. In the glare, she was peering into the darkness and at the wall in front of them, like she was seeing some pattern none of the humans could discern. When they all began looking around, Sherman noticed that there were random surges of light beyond the beams, like sparklers or fireworks, but they vanished before he and his older brother were able to scan them.

"What is this place?" Zoom asked nervously, taking off his helmet for better side vision.

"The Keymasters called this place the Paradox Zone," came the reply. "My kind call it the Dark Zone because of the way it appeared when changing its appearance, according to the wills of those controlling it. Metaturra was the one who called it the Paradox Zone, because of its contradicting functions."Almost absently, she began to recite a sort of riddle or rhyme. _"It is one thing, yet it is many. It exists in the Multiverse, yet it does not. It is a place of life and death, luxury and poverty, learning and ignorance._

"Its' not elegant, but it describes the Paradox," she finished, shrugging her slim shoulders. "Normally, the Zone is used for a training Zone for recruits learning to create Battlezones, but it can also be a refuge for the ones that need it … or a place where the worst of the worst are executed, the ones the Krypt Zone cannot contain."

As they had spoken, the darkness had slowly risen away from the area, allowing the BF5 to switch off their headlights as they observed the new surroundings. To the Humans, they resembled the ruins of Modulon 5 – a few Agis Guardians (or rather, what was left of them) could be seen dotting the landscape of scarred and toppled, tan skyscrapers. The center structure was the sole undamaged building – a giant dome, one that the Superbowl might be hosted in (at least, that was what Vert was comparing it to).

"Uh, are you sure we haven't gotten here too late?" Spinner asked, despite the fact he knew the portal for this Zone had only been opened minutes earlier.

Choza shook her head. "The Sanctuary version of the Paradox Zone always looks like this. Besides, the Phoenix glyph on that obelisk" – she punctuated her sentence by indicating a nearby pillar, where a carving of that bird glowed blue – "has not turned red. It is blue; therefore, no one has penetrated the Sanctuary yet. My Mistress will be waiting inside the dome for us."

With that, Choza revved the Shifter and tore off into the Zone. It took a moment for the others to follow suit, but soon they were all weaving amongst the wreckage, heading towards the eerily complete dome in the center.

**XxX**

_[[Topside scan: no major life forms]]_

_[[Hub systems: operational]]_

_[[Mobius Command Center: optimum]]_

_[[Battlekey Vault: unbreached]]_

_[[Security systems: operational]]_

They were the usual scans, all indicating that all was well, yet Sage was not confident in that. Of course, all was well in the Hub – except for herself. Ever since Choza and the Battle Force 5 had entered the stormshock, some three hours earlier, the Blue Sentient had been waiting and worrying. Her calculations from the Diad's plan outline had indicated that – if they did not encounter opposition in the Battlezones – it would only take an hour and a half for the group to find the Keymaster and bring her back to Earth. Twice that time had gone by, and with no communication since then, the young female could not help but fear that something had gone horribly wrong.

_Nothing's happened. They've just been jammed._

_But still –_

_If Krytus had found them, you would know it._

She'd been having a similar argument for the past hour or so, her logic centers warring with her emotion nodes. While she knew her logic had a point – if her twin had been feeling powerful emotions like triumph or rage, she would sense it – her emotional modules, the ones that caused her to be compassionate towards Vert and his friends, told her the radio silence was unnatural.

_They're fine._

_By the Council of Five, being a thinking machine can sometimes be annoying. Logic –_

That was as far as her annoyed observation got before a bolt of raw, mental energy ripped through her systems, causing her to voice a cry echoed by the hollow, metal walls of her Hub, heard only by her machines.

_She was floating in the expanses of space, the familiar homeworlds of Blue and Red Sentients floating around her. The moons spun in their celestial dance around their larger partners, shooting stars whizzing by like sweeps of shining paint._

_Sage's eyes fell upon the Red Sentient Planet. She was flying closer, defying the lack of gravity as she plummeted. Thrills of fear raced into her mind, but her logic reminded her that this was just a vision; her physical form was in no danger._

_Just a vision, yet she knew it was so dangerous; these glimpses into the future she sometimes had could be both a blessing and a curse. They had mercifully dulled after her civilization's fall, Krytus' imprisonment, and her own amnesia, yet the curing of her memory and her brother's liberation from the Krypt Zone had caused her power to return full-force._

_Her free-fall abruptly stopped above Mados, one of the largest Red Sentient cities before she had frozen the Reds in time and space for eternity. It had been like Modulon 5 on her own world, only much more dangerous – while Modulon 5 had been known for philosophers, scientists, and artists, Mados was known for weapons factories, production of Antimatter crystals, and many more unsavory actions._

_Why would her visions bring her here? Zemerik had only used it to produce Sark legions and salvage Sentient technology, considering it a place of bad memories and only keeping a garrison there to prevent the Vandals from taking it. Besides, the Sark leader was currently fleeing Krytus –_

_The moment her mind came to that conclusion, her eyes focused on one of the tallest buildings that made up the center. Her eyes suddenly zoomed in on a window near the top, and suddenly she was there, peering through the opening; an invisible onlooker._

_Two Red Sark were in the corners, but they could not see her. An ornate door was tightly sealed, but in the center, there was only what Sage recognized as a reverse hadron link. Just as a hadron link could recharge a Sentient and awaken them from their hibernation modes, a reverse link could force a Sentient into hibernation and keep them there. _

_It wasn't the link that made her feel shock and horror, though – it was what was inside it._

With a gasp, the Blue Sentient was released from the vision's grasp, gasping like a shocked Human would when they awoke from a nightmare. Desperately, she tried to raise Vert, Choza, or any of the others on their comlinks, but she only got static. Just when she truly needed to communicate with them, she was well and truly jammed.

_I wish I wasn't, _she thought, eyes closing and seeing the last part of the vision once again. _Dear Agis Guardians, I wish I wasn't._

**XxX**

The labyrinth of destruction seemed to go on forever; while they must have made fifty turns in ten minutes, they never seemed to get any closer to the arena where the Diad had said Metaturra was waiting. It wasn't long until Stanford complained about it, and Choza commented that it was a defense mechanism, meant to slow down invading forces. "There's a way through to the center; we just need to find it.

"There's another defense in here, though," she added. "There's a ray complex somewhere around here that will trigger hyper-aggressive tendencies in its targets, effective in organic beings, robots … and Diads and Sentients. If they come out, none of us are safe."

"Is this like Tors-10?" Agura asked, remembering the Coliseum Battlezone and the mad Red Sark that had been controlling it.

"Tors-10 only had a limited version of the beam that's in here. His beam only worked on organics like you and the Vandal, and it affected everyone not contained behind shields. This one will affect us all … and it will only target certain persons. The whole purpose of it is to divide invading groups and make them fight amongst themselves, enabling more powerful defenses to be activated."

"Is it triggered automatically?" Zoom wanted to know.

"No. Anyone within the dome can turn it on; it's not controlled by the Zone. It will manifest as red energy beams. When it turns on, a humming noise will be made, something like –"

Before Choza could finish, a deep thum, like the deep strumming of a bass guitar plugged into giant amplifiers, pealed out, making everything shiver.

"– that!" she ended, accelerating. "Evasive maneuvers!"

None of the humans had needed another word on the subject; they all remembered the aggro-beam Tors-10 had used on them not too long ago. All five cars scattered, Choza continuing on the straight path while they raced down side-alleys.

Peering back, the Black Diad could see the monstrous machines that were chasing her down the battered avenue, eventually breaking off to hunt the Battle Force. They were tripods, red Cyclops eyes blazing in the center of an oblong head. As she watched, the pair pursuing her fired a bloodred beam she narrowly managed to avoid.

Over the comms, she could hear frantic cries as Vert, Stanford, Zoom, Agura, and the Cortez's raced away, trying not to be hit. _Not like that will help – this flight is hollow, empty; they'll catch us in the end, _she thought grimly. _Our only hope is if Metaturra realizes I'm with them and shuts down the rays._

Her thoughts were broken by a shriek, quickly followed by clamoring as the others tried to contact Stanford. Choza herself could hear heavy breathing, like a cyber-ox was preparing a charge.

"The ray's got him," she said matter-of-factly. "Only way to release him is –"

Another cry hit her audio receptors. "And now Agura's been hit."

Sighing, she almost missed hearing another shot being fired from the pair of ray-bots that were hunting her. Quickly executing a hard left, she managed to evade, but while she had been talking, another bot had silently fallen into the chase among the ruined buildings. Swimming through the air like a metal jellyfish, its eye began to focus, ready to fire.

The Shifter's sensors detected the bot, warned her. The Alpha Prime began to go into shift-mode – too late, as the beam ripped through the air and connected with her.

Satisfied, all the hunting bots vanished like they never had existed.

Choza remained on the throughfare, feet on the ground to stabilize the Shifter. Her artificial heart and lungs were working overtime, and while her mind rode a wave of relief that she wasn't hurt, something else was being triggered. She felt better, better than she had ever felt before – yet she felt like she was balancing on a knife's edge, where a gentle breeze could fling her one way or another.

"Choza? Do you copy?" Vert called over the comm. While his question was in concern, to Choza it was a smug one, like it was vindication that she was worthless, a traitor – dead weight. The Alpha Prime could never tolerate such criticism in the past, and now, with the Diad equivalent of adrenaline ripping through her body, she responded with far more rage than she ever would have when she was sane.

"Bring it on!" she roared to the perceived challenge, revving the engine and flying down the alleys, seeking those that would abandon her. Two vehicles – one emerald, the other violet – moved up beside her, but she had no harsh feelings towards them. They were like her, and they would help her hunt down that did them wrong.

Weapons at the ready, Choza, Agura, and Stanford – now fully under the sway of the agro-beams – began the hunt.

**XxX**

**Author's Note: **So yeah, read and review! For now, I'll just leave you with a quote from today's new episode (I swear, HW: BF5 is the most quotable cartoon I've ever watched).

[Quick note: In the episode, Vert traveled back in time to recover the Double Helix Crystals (what Sage used to freeze the Red Sentients in time) from Krytus and his crew. He also used a virus Sage implanted into his sword to release Zemerik from Krytus' will, explaining how his eyes were opened]

(Vert has just used the Saber to snatch the Crystals out of Krytus' hands and is driving away)

**Vert: **Close, but no enchilada!

**-Later on-**

(Krytus and his crew have cornered Vert at the edge of a cliff; Krytus has Vert by the neck)

**Krytus**: I don't know who you are, or what an enchilada is –

The scene kept going from there, but it was right then that my brother and I looked at each other and burst out laughing. =P 

-Inferna


	8. Hello Good Morning

Hello Good Morning

Vert wasn't quite sure what happened after the machines vanished. Seconds after he had asked for Choza's status, he'd gotten a yell in reply that he was pretty sure would kill his eardrums in the confined space of the Saber cockpit. Then he'd gotten roars of gunned engines from three of his radio lines, and before he could demand an explanation, someone whipped by the Saber, clipping it with their own side before whirling around to face the ruby hood.

The blonde human found himself looking through two panes of thick windshield glass to stare at red-headed Stanford, whose green eyes were locked on his face with a fury he remembered all too well from the Tors-10 episode. They were still driving – Vert forward, Stanford backwards – and as the Sonic Guns came out and opened fire, Vert whipped out his blades and engaged his new enemy.

Elsewhere, Zoom had quickly found himself in an impromptu motorcycle drag race that was lacking the official finish line. Choza glared at him from the Shifter's saddle, and he returned it with the kind of strength that was more from irritation towards the device causing this than actual anger at the Diad – though that was how the irate Alpha Prime interpreted it.

Internally knowing it was impossible to talk his ally out of attacking – it was only by spotting the Vandals nearby that Agura and the Cortezs had snapped out of the control of Tors-10, and Choza herself had said this one was more powerful – the Muay Thai warrior kicked the Chopper into high gear, planning to get ahead of the Diad and clip her with the blades of his bike when he came back around. As he whirled around a corner, his ally-turned-enemy hot on his exhaust pipe, Zoom got a momentary glimpse of the Buster – whose drivers were currently trying to swat Agura off their roof – before they flashed out of his line of sight.

A piece of rubble came up, suiting his purposes perfectly. Zoom raced up it, deploying the Chopper's functions and hovering helicopter-style above the ground. Whirling into a tight turn, he raced towards Choza, who – noticing her opponent bearing down on her – reached out as she whipped past a pile of wreckage and snatched a length of metal piping from the pile.

Grinning and standing up on her saddle, the Diad pulled back and swung the pipe like an oversized baseball bat. Startled, Zoom swerved out of the way and dropped back onto his wheels behind the Diad, who in turn whirled and drove backwards, even as her front headlights changed from deep red to blinding white.

**XxX**

Determined to get Agura off their car, without irreparably damaging either Tangler or its driver, Sherman flung the Buster into a hard left turn, firing the afterburners as he went. Spinner (who had once again ignored common sense and neglected to strap on his seatbelt) had to grip his pair of maneuverable screens to keep from sprawling over the armrests, but by letting the blue tank's right side screech painfully against the wall of a nearby building, the jolt and the speedy turn made Agura get dislodged, sliding off the top into a heap on the ground.

Knowing that this wouldn't keep the African princess down for long – she'd be wall-crawling again within thirty seconds – the brothers raced down a side-alley, Sherman running over data he had retrieved from Agura, taken while wrestling her.

"Vert," he called. "I managed to get a scan of Agura while we were fighting her. I might be able to isolate the chemical signature of the aggro-beam and trace it back to the power core."

"Great!" came the reply, and the brothers watched as Vert briefly appeared on another street, hotly pursued by Stanford and his Sonic Guns. "Any time now would be nice!"

"Ahh!"

With the sound of Zoom's cry of pain, Sherman put aside his work on the Agura-scan and sat his foot on the accelerator, tracking the Muay Thai warrior's signal to an alleyway. They found him on the street, pinned beneath the Chopper and his eyes scrunched up in pain beneath his helmet. Not far away, Choza, her face plastered with a sinister smile and clutching a heavy length of piping in her free hand, was turning the Shifter around, preparing another strike against the Human.

Spinner, as usual, was the first of the pair to panic. "Zoom! Get up, buddy!"

"He can't," his younger brother said, taking scans of Zoom and rescanning the Shifter and its rider. "Choza's bike can emit a paralyzing beam from its headlights, and Zoom got the full blast of it."

By now, Sherman had maneuvered the Buster around the fallen Scout (which had to be an unnerving experience for the fallen teen, since he couldn't try to jump over them) and had placed ten inches of thick armor between the incoming Diad and their friend. As added insurance, the brothers popped out their mace spikes and started spinning their chain flails, daring the female to keep coming forward.

Eyes wide as she comprehended her danger, Choza dropped the pipe and went into shift mode, flying onto another plane just before she slammed into the Buster. While Sherman continued to track her progress, Spinner leapt out of the back door and dragged the younger boy into the relative safety of their tank.

Calling on their magnetic grappler, the Chopper was pulled onto the back of the blue tank and the driver smashed through the wall in front of them, flying into the crumbled building as Choza reappeared at the head of the alley. She wasn't alone – Agura had gotten back up onto a building and was leaping between the gaps as she hunted, like a giant emerald lioness.

Meanwhile, Vert was starting to get worried. While he had not sustained any real damage save a few dings from falling rubble, Stanford's rage-impaired aim was now getting back to its normal sharpness. His last three sonic blasts had come dangerously close to the mark, and if Sherman did not figure out how to snap their friends out of their trance soon, the Saber was gonna need some serious repairs in the near future.

"Sherman?" he yelled into the comm., even as he screeched into a hard right turn, another pair of sound bursts slamming into the building that had been in front of him. "Tell me you can figure out how to turn this off soon!"

"Got it!" was his reply. "There's a large energy source about two clicks to the west. It matches the chemical signature of what Agura's got, and it has the same energy reading as the tripods that were chasing us earlier."

"Just when did you get around to scanning that?" Zoom wanted to know, who was hanging on to Spinner's chair as he recovered from the effects of Choza's paralyzing beam. The younger Cortez chose to ignore that question as Vert asked for the coordinates for the energy core. After sending them to the Saber's driver, Sherman put all his attention into ditching Choza and Agura just long enough to get there.

A few streets to the south, Vert was doing the same with the sharpshooter redhead, looking for a suitable diversion. It came in the form of a giant storehouse, with ropes hanging off the ceilings holding giant metal blocks. The metal wall opposite of him was warped in a manner that had curved it inward, like an explosion had taken place inside here in the past. Either way, this would suit his purposes perfectly.

Slamming the gas pedal to the metal, the blonde Human raced at the wall, using it to get up into the air. Just before he forsook wall for air, he threw himself into a spin, extending his blades again and using them to clip the ropes, releasing them of their cargo. While Stanford dealt with evading the blocks, Vert landed heavily – thankfully, right-side up – on the ground and began driving towards the energy source.

"Buster, I'm on my way to the power core. You ditch the others yet?"

"That's a big ten-four," Spinner said. "And in case you cared to know, Agura doesn't deal with Choza's beam much better than Zoom does."

Back at the site, Choza apologized multiple times to the paralyzed Agura, even as she contacted the Reverb. "Stanford, do you copy?"

"Yeah, but I won't be able to move far until I get these metal blocks out of my way."

Gritting her teeth in a snarl, the Black Diad mounted the Shifter and took off on her own. She had been listening in on the chatter of their enemies for a while, and while the aggro-beam was impairing her exact memory, she knew she could not let them reach the core. It was important, though she couldn't remember how, and to let them destroy it would be terrible.

**XxX**

The large, mostly-intact warehouse that was their target housed a giant, egg-shaped structure, with red pustules glowing like radioactive blackheads over the surface; more of the tripods that had pursued them earlier rested dormant in the back. As the Buster and Saber, Chopper in tow, drove up to the main entrance, Spinner made a face. "That's nasty."

"Then let's get rid of it. Think one of the bombs can destroy it?" Vert asked.

"Scans say they should," Sherman said, pulling out a capsule and handing it to Spinner, who armed it and placed it into the launcher. Just as the words left their lips, all four sets of Human ears caught the roar of an unmuffled engine, coming towards them fast. Choza veered around the corner, not looking happy at all. Not noticing the Buster initially, her eyes remained on the Saber, who was closer to the door.

Sherman reversed quite abruptly, making a stiff Zoom tumble backwards ("Ow!") and knocking Spinner's head against the back of his seat as he pulled away. Vert took the hint, whirling around and racing away from the depot. Blinded by rage, unable to think quite rationally, Choza pursued the target around a corner out of sight.

With that little problem neatly solved by Vert, the Cortezs were able to proceed with the launch. After the tank was shifted a little, the older twin cried "Target acquired!" as he depressed the launch button. The blue-tinged, oblong capsule flew out of the turret and kept a straight course at the biggest pustule, piercing it and – quite predictably – made the egg-structure explode.

Fire erupted from the thing, making the red spots burst with the crackling of shattering, melting glass. Through the flames they could see the strange, alien mechanisms that powered the nerve center of the Sanctuary/Paradox Zone's defense system, and then it fell to pieces.

"Robo-zit popped!" Spinner cheered, leaning forward and high-fiving his twin.

Over the comm., they could hear the surprised cries of their friends, newly released from the aggro-beam that had enslaved them. "What happened?" a very confused Agura asked, feeling disoriented from the draining of rage from her body and her release from the "shutterfly". In the Reverb, Stanford wasn't feeling much better.

"Just a minor drain from the aggro-beam used on us," Choza said cheerfully, recovering the fastest since had spent the least amount of time under the influence. "Don't worry; it only lasts for a minute or so. Hey, Vert," she called, "How long was it until Metaturra shut it down?"

"Actually, Metaturra didn't shut it down," the blonde admitted as he stopped next to her. "We had to blow up the core to snap you out of it."

"And it took five minutes for us to get around to that," Spinner chimed in.

The Diad's facial expression changed from a wide grin to a puzzled frown. "Weird," she murmured. "Metaturra can be difficult to reason with at times, yes, but I've been broadcasting my energy signature since we entered the Paradox Zone. I can't imagine why she'd ignore it after being chased by Krytus for a week."

While the Alpha Prime was saying that, the others regrouped and a deep rumbling emitted from deeper inside the Battlezone. As they watched, the buildings began to shift aside, like they were on treadmills or giant gears, clearing a path leading directly to the domed building where the Black Sentient was holed up.

"Looks like that's our ticket inside," Vert said, revving his engines and racing down, the others after him in a Wedge position. While Choza supposedly couldn't think of any reasons why Metaturra would attack them willfully, the Humans could think of many – and not all of them were flattering.

**XxX**

As they entered the dome, the BF5 caught their first glimpse of Metaturra's vehicle of choice. It resembled the Mobius Command Center they recovered for Sage hours after meeting her for the first time, but black accents replaced the blue their advisor's own had. It rested in the center of the giant space, an arena that lacked seats, grass, or anything else that distinguished it as anything other than a bunker.

It lay peacefully in the heart, but Vert ordered for the team to remain in their battle positions and approach with caution. Choza had thought that Metaturra would disable the aggro-beam about a minute after it was put into use, but it had taken five minutes for Agura, Stanford, and the Diad herself to be released – and that had been because the Cortez boys had destroyed the power core, not because the Keymaster had turned it off.

His caution was understandable, and he was proven right when the gigantic convoy vehicle powered up, its bridge rising up into a turret similar to the activation of Onslaught mode. Instead of firing its lethal missiles towards them, though, a photon cannon all-too-familiar to the crew was charging and close to firing.

In the back of the formation, Choza spotted it and – realizing that it was too late to drive away – cut her visual feed in exchange for a sonar mode. Thus, she was spared from the "shutterfly" (fortunately, she knew this version could only blind, as opposed to blinding and paralyzing) and able to maneuver away while her Human companions were crying out in pain.

Connecting her comlink to the radio feed of the Mobi, she cried out as she circled, staying close to the walls. "Black Mobi, this is Alpha Prime Diad Choza! Ceasefire, we mean no harm! Repeat, this is Alpha Prime Choza with friendlies!"

The cannon – in the midst of a recharge – froze and then drained its power, allowing the cockpit to lower back into place even as the vehicle storage doors opened. Knowing that Vert and the others would not be able to see for a while, Choza turned her visual units back on and verbally guided the group into the garage.

Meeting them was another Black Diad, shorter than Spinner by a foot and with a face contorted in anguish. "I'm sorry!" she cried in a heavily-synthesized falsetto once she sealed the doors behind the Buster. "With Krytus chasing us through the Battlezones for the last few days, I couldn't afford to take chances. It wasn't until Choza contacted me that I realized that I was executing friendly-fire."

The BF5 wasn't in the best mood or shape to accept the Diad's apology, so the Alpha Prime stepped in to try and smooth it over. "Beta Diad Vivi, I think the Five will be more willing to forgive you if you administered the appropriate treatment."

With more guilt on her facial expression, Vivi called up a computer screen and turned on a series of screens that shone onto the Humans. Choza knew from past experience that the light shining from them would ease the effects of the "shutterfly" and allow victims to see properly, but it would take about five minutes for the magic to happen.

Leaving the devices to their work, Choza made her way to the bridge of Metaturra's Mobi, Vivi trotting beside her and continuing to babble apologies about the whole incident. "It's alright, Vivi," the Alpha Prime finally said, cutting off her friend in mid-sentence. "What's done is done, and since the Sentients haven't been able to invent a way to turn back time on command yet, we might as well get over it. Speaking of which, we found Whyer in the Hub."

Vivi finally shut up and was listening attentively as Choza explained the circumstances that had brought them to the Keymaster Hub, the discovery of the Master Key's being absent, and the Alpha Diad's death. When the story ended, the smaller female let out a long, drawn out sigh of sadness. "It's a pity – I could've used his help here. I'll miss him when we get to Earth."

"Same. But where's Metaturra?"

Vivi's dark purple eyes got even darker. "You won't like this," she said grimly. "When we were about to jump into the Dark Zone, an ambush of Red Sark took us by surprise. Metaturra ordered me to enter the next Zone without her; she said that she would catch up with me once she had destroyed them. But when the Zone finished altering and I could access the Cradles, I saw the Red Zurk force the Mistress into a reverse hadron link and take her through a portal."

Choza felt a sickening, almost sour, sensation in her systems, like she had jumped over a tall cliff minus a bungee cord. "Where did they take her?"

"I managed to trace the portal's origin to the Red Sentient world – more specifically, Mados. The Master Keys Mistress has enabled me to track the place she was taken – along with her status. So far, she hasn't given Krytus the Master Keys or the coordinates to Earth, but she hasn't been corrupted."

Choza nodded soberly. "Yet," she finished, voicing what Vivi had left unsaid. Both Diads stood there in silence, in the place their Mistress had held sway from for countless years, both knowing the same thing. Metaturra would hold out for as long as she could, but eventually Krytus would tire of trying to make her see things his way. Once he did, he would poison his former mentor, turn her into a Red Sentient, and once that occurred, the Multiverse was sure to fall.

**XxX**

**Author's Note: **Gaah, I hate it when you don't have a smoothly-flowing chapter and it feels thrown-together, like this one was. . Anyway, here's my post-Thanksgiving gift to Keymaster fans, and at this point, I think I can safely tell you that there _will _be a sequel to this, currently titled _Keymasters: Red Rivers_. =D

Thanks again, and don't forget to leave a comment, for this and for my new BF5 crossover, _The Age-Old Question_! =P I now leave you with a random BF5 Quote of the Day:

"He's a Christmas ornament! A high-tech hacky-sack! Zoom! Can you hear me, buddy? Zoom? Zoooom!"

*coughing* "Yeah, could you hold it down? I got a wicked headache …"

-Spinner Cortez and Zoom Takazumi, _Ascent of the Red Sentients – Part 2_

-Inferna Fires – *gets whacked over the head with a sledgehammer for being a shameless plug*


	9. Mission: Impossible

Mission: Impossible

When Choza returned to the garage, she found that the machines had done their work, restoring vision to the BF5. They had gotten over their funk with Vivi and were joking around, reliving exciting parts of their fight outside and teasing each other about their reactions to the photon cannon. The Alpha Prime was stuck with a Human-like pang of sadness that she would be forced to make this good time end by telling them it wasn't over yet; part of her wanted her to delay telling them, so the tension-release could linger.

The problem was that – when it came to a mission like this – delaying the exchange of information would benefit no one. Sadly, she stepped out of the doorway and into view of her companions.

It took a moment for her friends to notice, but finally they did. She made no attempt to disguise her gloominess, but what surprised her was how quickly they realized that there was something very wrong. Her pheromone sensors detected changes in their own chemical levels, balancing dopamine out with counter-chemicals: they had gotten an idea of her character faster than she ever anticipated.

"What is it, Choza?" the tall leader asked, looking past the glasses on his face and into her eyes. Less than a week had gone by since she had encountered him, in the dead of night in Sage's Hub, with he trying to eliminate an unknown intruder to their little kingdom and she trying to recharge her power supply, yet the Black Diad knew that out of all six Humans, she trusted him most.

"Vivi has informed me that my Mistress is with Krytus," she said flatly. "She was captured even as we drove through the Sanctuary ruins, and he brought her to his homeworld."

Shocked conversation broke out around Vert, amongst his teammates and friends, yet his attention remained focused on the Alpha Prime Diad he had come to see as a fellow BF5 member, never mind her physical, mental, and intellectual differences from the others. He had sensed it amongst the others, and he knew that even Stanford, who had distrusted Choza from the start, had begun to see her that way as well. "Where is he holding her?" he asked, knowing that they had to hurry if they were to have any chance of saving Metaturra.

"He brought her to Mados, one of the largest Red cities on their homeworld," Vivi explained, scrambling down to join them. In her computerized falsetto, she continued, "Choza and I can use the Master Key program to send you close to her prison, and give you the coordinates. We'll wait here for you to return."

"No, we won't," Choza returned, wheeling to face the smaller Diad. "I'll go with them. You'll take the Black Mobi and go to the River Delta Zone, and wait for us to return."

"What?" the Beta asked incredulously. "Agis Guardians, Choza, these are the Five! They can deal with it without you."

"Maybe they can, but they can't get into the Paradox Zone without a Master Key user, and there's no guarantee that Metaturra will be in any shape to generate a Key, or that we can open and close a portal fast enough to keep enemies out. They have the Key to River Delta, and in any case, it'll be best if Mistress has a familiar face nearby when she awakens.

"I am the Alpha Prime, Vivi. I can handle this, and right now I am giving you an order. Will you follow it?"

The Beta Black Diad looked ready to continue arguing, but her programming ordered her to follow the orders of the Alpha Prime's orders in the absence of the Sentient she was employed by. Nodding sadly, she opened the doors out of the bay and allowed the BF5 back outside into the dome. As the Mobi began to Zone-jump, Choza opened a new portal for them to drive through.

**XxX**

The portal opened into the outskirts of a giant city similar to Modulon 5, only with red and black tones giving the landscape and buildings color. In the sky, they could see the blue planet that Sage had called home; in the distance, giant skyscrapers reached for the heavens. The metropolis itself was in much better shape than Modulon, though when they looked around, they saw a different kind of destruction scattered in the streets.

Sentients, as red as blood and covered in tribal-centric black markings, were standing as still as statues, their faces frozen in whatever expression they had been in before they had become immobile. Fangs gleamed in the mouths of those that had been snarling, but the overwhelming emotion on their faces was surprise. Ever curious, Zoom wheeled up to a male roughly his own height and wove a hand in front of his face, and then prodded him with his index finger. Nether motion garnered a response.

"What happened to these guys?" he asked out loud.

"Sage said that she had to freeze the Reds, in order to protect her own people," replied Agura. "I guess she didn't mean in ice."

"She didn't," Choza added. "She used a powerful artifact to freeze Krytus' people in time and space. Until her actions are undone, they will be this way for all eternity."

Wanting to move on from the mildly-creepy topic of the Red Sentients, Sherman asked, "Can you give us any more information about Mados, Choza?"

"Sure. Mados was a major city for the Reds prior to Krytus' actions – his second-in-command for his elite team of warriors hailed from here – and I guess you could say it's the Red equivalent of Modulon 5. Thing was, Mados was a place that was much more martial than Modulon: it was a major supplier of weapons for the Red Sentient armies, and a favorite location for gladiator fights. There were more actions that happened here – in the interest of good taste, I won't bother telling you about them – but once the planet fell into Zemerik's hands, he mainly used it to salvage Sentient tech and build his legions."

Examining the horizon with both eyes (aided by binoculars) and his scanners, the younger Cortez brother quickly locked onto the skyscraper that – according to Vivi's coordinates – was where Metaturra's prison was located. He also located about three squads of Red Zurk circling the city block around it; when Spinner hacked into their radio feeds, he confirmed what the brothers already knew: the Zurk were meant to keep anyone not meant to enter out of Metaturra's prison.

"Now what?" Stanford demanded to know.

Vert didn't like to admit it, but he couldn't see many options. A frontal assault would be relatively easy for them to execute, but it would take time – time enough for Krytus to learn of their presence and come to kill them. Decoying the Zurk could work, but there was no guarantee that all of the Zurk would pursue.

He fronted these ideas to Choza, who agreed that neither of the options were good. "I'm not willing to risk any of you to the decoy idea – the Prophecy of Five, the one we Diads refer to when we call you the Five, says that the Battle Force 5 will be the catalyst for the rebuilding of Sentient civilization and defeating Krytus. Placing you in danger of Krytus again will not fulfill it; those events are supposed to take place in the future." Ignoring the conversations that her simple statement had sparked, she stared at the skyscraper. "If we had someone who was expendable and would provoke the Zurk, the decoy idea would be our best bet."

"Someone like them?" the driver of the Reverb asked, indicating a blip that had appeared on his scanners. All members of the BF5 looked down at their own sets, then Choza grinned. "_Exactly_ like them. Quick, catch them!"

**XxX**

Azurah wasn't quite sure how his routine had gotten rattled so quickly, but rattled it was. One moment Krytus' Red Diad – fresh off the machines and implemented with a reused personality core – had been riding on a hovercraft that was in the early stages of disrepair, checking the perimeter of Mados and awaiting orders from his Master. The next moment, the quiet borders exploded.

Crying out in alarm, Azurah made his machine screech to a halt, and then he whirled back towards Mados, where the Zurk guard would be able to protect him. The one who had caused this gave chase; their vehicle was far better than his, and colored like the eyes of the Sentient Krytus held in the skyscraper. A pair of giant ranged weapons lazed on and out of the flat hood, firing pulses of sound that forced him to make his craft work hard on dodging.

It was strange, though – his scanners were informing him that the sound blasts were not meant to hit him, but impact just close enough to keep him tense. Why wasn't the assailant trying to destroy him?

His answer came in the form of an indigo-colored grappling hook, securing itself firmly around his middle and hauling him gracelessly off the saddle. His blurring peripheral vision caught a similar emerald grappler catching his craft and dragging it away too, and then he was slammed to the ground.

Azurah caught an image of a black version of himself, slightly taller but a Diad nonetheless, standing over him with a syringe in hand, then his systems went into automatic shutdown as the needle pierced his outer shell.

**XxX**

Vert watched as Choza and the Cortezs finished tinkering with the rusty hovercraft and the lava-colored Diad that had been riding it. The Alpha Prime had hacked into his systems to learn anything useful about Metaturra's prison and so she could adopt the identity of Azurah (the name of their captive, which suggested to the blonde that Krytus might have a sense of humor), and then swapped the signals of Diad and vehicle so the brainless Zurk would think it was Choza they were chasing around Mados.

"There we go," Spinner said, finishing the hacking and replacing the panels he had removed from the strange craft. "The signals are switched."

"Identity swap complete," Choza said at the same time. "Initializing skin changes."

As she spoke, the palettes of the two Diads were traded, and even their physical traits changed. Choza's body became smaller and stockier, eyes becoming yellow-red and body the color of cooling lava; across from her, Azurah's sleeping form became taller, with pronounced feminine traits on his black figure. A hologram formed over both vehicles, appearing like each other as Choza's voice became slid from the soprano range to the bass.

"Let's get rolling," she growled, baring realistic fangs. "Be ready to drive; I'll wake him up."

As the Cortezs hopped back inside the Buster and the BF5 revved their engines, Choza undid the actions that had silenced the Red Diad. Her doppelganger crawled back to his feet (her feet?) and obediently clambered onto the "Shifter's" seat. The engine roared, and then the real Azurah rode away.

On the scanners, Vert watched the single blip that was Azurah ride down what he thought might be a highway, heading directly towards the building that Metaturra was held in. The giant mass of red dots that were the Zurk instantly broke off their routine and pursued the brainwashed Diad due west of their intended destination.

"That oughta do," murmured Choza/Azurah. "Let's get going, before Krytus learns from his Zurk that they are chasing 'me.'"

**XxX**

Ignoring the scanners that were trying to tell them that an enemy was next to them – namely, the being that was occupying Choza's space on the road – the BF5 raced into the downtown region of Mados, eyes fixed on the building that Metaturra was imprisoned in. The number of frozen Red Sentients increased as they moved inside, forcing them to weave around the wax-like people that were caught in a state of suspended animation. The Humans tried not to think about the Reds too much – no matter how warlike they might be, no matter what they might've done to the Blues had Sage not frozen them, they could only imagine what circumstances would have driven their peaceful friend to condemn an entire civilization.

They left their vehicles about a block from the building; it was too small for them to drive inside. Choza, guided by the knowledge she had gleaned from Azurah's mind, managed to use his identity to activate a lift large enough to carry six Humans and a Diad up to the thirty-ninth level, which opened up to be a single (rather large)room. A pair of Red Zurk had been standing in the corner, but upon the opening of the lift doors, they had fallen silent, deactivated by some nuance in their programming. A solid wall had been devoted to screens and computers; evidently, this room doubled as a security complex as well as a prison chamber for the Sentient within. A pair of broken windows were the only features on the flanking walls, giving a dizzying view of the ground below and letting in cool drafts.

A Red hadron link hovered in the center, holding a large black cube the size of Sherman's fists clenched together. Zoom impulsively reached for the cube, only for his gloved hands to slide off an invisible barrier. With a warning glance thrown towards the Muay Thai warrior, Vert asked the obvious question: "How do we get Metaturra out of here?"

"We have to detonate the link from inside," Sherman said, even as Choza reverted to her natural makeup and moved to the computers. "To do that, we need to send a small amount of energy back through the link, and then a large amount. Choza, are the controls implemented in there?"

"Affirmative," was the reply, the Diad sliding back into a military-like manner of speaking. "Krytus wanted to keep an eye on the rest of the building while dealing with my Mistress, so he tied them into the security computers."

Sherman examined the reverse hadron link again, its cargo floating inside like an egg in saltwater, then gave Choza a signal. The Diad eased open a valve, letting a little energy feed back inside the link. According to the data logs Sage possessed, reverse links siphoned power from the Sentients inside, forcing them into hibernation to slow the drain. It had been used countless times in the Sentient Wars, but only a few still existed after the ravages done to both civilizations.

On the screens, the Five watched as the hieroglyphic script of the Reds flashed new readings and the link throbbed with color, turning scarlet, cerulean, and black in a matter of seconds. Choza teased the valve a little more, opening it a bit wider. Freeing Metaturra had to be a done that certain way: first with a trickle of energy, then a big burst. Doing the former the entire time would take hours; performing the latter right away could fry her memory banks.

The Alpha Prime's eyes only briefly left the control screens, and that was to check a monitor set up to detect movement in the building. Finding nothing to interest her, she returning to her readouts: _10% … 13% … 15% … 16% … 17% …_

Once the energy percentage reached 20 – the absolute minimum to prepare a captive Sentient for release – she flung the valve open all the way. Stolen power flooded into the link, causing it to shudder – then to explode, releasing a cloud of thick black smoke that caused the Humans to cough violently. Spinner tried to make a wisecrack about their current situation, but his sentence got lost in his hacking after the fifth word.

As the air started to clear through the broken windows, Vert's watering eyes perceived the kneeling figure of a Sentient, who would easily be a head taller than Krytus if she had been standing up. Time had passed since the image he'd seen in the Keymaster Hub had been uploaded: While she still appeared like a Human woman in her mid-twenties, when she looked up from the floor he could see countless eons of age, sadness, and wisdom in those amethyst orbs.

"Mistress!" Choza darted through the haze to crouch beside the Black Sentient. Placing her hands on the other's shoulders, she continued on in the same breath. "Mistress, are you alright?"

Metaturra seemed to be struggling for breath, but finally words came forth. "If you mean if I am functional, that is truth. But if you refer to the current situation, though, then we are far from all right." Her voice was a rich alto with nary a trace of a synthesizer, the kind that made the listener wish the speaker would sing, but right now there was more on the minds of the BF5 than their chances in making the Sentient croon.

"What is it?" Vert asked. He was worried both by her conviction and the fact her appearance was fading in and out of focus, the way Sage had hours after he had rescued her from Kalus, with her unable to recharge in a Mobi.

"It's a trap," she said grimly. "I was initially Krytus' bait, because he wants the Master Keys and another Red on his side. But now that you all are here, he will use you to keep me in line. He has us all as tools, pawns for each other's surrender: my Keys, Choza's coordinates, and you Humans as the Five."

"Not if we can help it," Agura declared. "Can you stand, Metaturra?"

Before the Black could speak, a wailing erupted from the computers. Spinner, who by now was the closest to the screens, read over the new security announcements. "The Zurk are coming back, and they've got reinforcements!"

At the same time, the doors to the lift sealed, though nothing happened to the windows. Peering outside them, Vert could see squads of the Red-bearing Sark screaming back towards their skyscraper from all directions. By his judgment, their ETA was about five minutes.

They were trapped.

**XxX**

*gasp* Suspense, right? =P And yes, I know this is earlier than usual, but I had been working on this chapter while trying to finish Chapter 7, so this just means more reader satisfaction.

Anyway, I now leave you with the BF5 Quote of the Day:

"Stanford to Vert. Do you copy?"

"Go on, Stan. What's up?"

"_HELP! _I'm being chased by a killer top!"

-Stanford Issac Rhodes and Vert Wheeler, _Ascent of the Red Sentients – Part 1_

(Also, while today's new episode did not debut AJ Dalton, I got to see another canon member of the Diads, and it was a Kyburi-centric episode! Yay! =D (BTW, Kyburi looks awesome when sitting in a throne, which she did today, and I never thought Sentients had nails _to_ sharpen. Learn something new every day. =P.))

-Inferna Firesword


	10. Cradles of Life

Cradles of Life

By now, Choza and Agura had helped Metaturra to her feet, which were slightly shaky after being drained. The Black Sentient glanced outside the nearest window, then addressed the blue-clad brothers. She might not have known any of these Humans personally, but both her work and her instinct told her they were beings she could trust with her safety.

"Can you reroute the power core of this computer into myself?"

Spinner was already on it. "I can't get all of the juice this thing has – most of it is keeping this place on lockdown. Draining it will make it easier to for the killer Zurk to get in."

"Take what you can. Even a small amount of hadron energy will be enough for me to Keymorph."

Before Stanford could ask the obvious question ("What the heck is Keymorphing?"), a hadron crystal that was pure white in color appeared in midair. The lights shut off after its appearance – a side-effect of the crystal's creation – but when Metaturra took it into her hands, it vanished again, the power used to create the crystal being funneled into her body.

The Black Sentient smiled slightly as her shell stopped flickering like a dying lightbulb; while she was still weaker than she preferred, the hadron energy managed to fuel her enough that she no longer needed someone to lean on. Straightening up, she lifted her right hand, and from it, a pulsing orb appeared, only to reform into a larger-than-average Battlekey. Unlike the River Delta Key the BF5 had procured – or, indeed, any kind of Key they had recovered – the color was not fixed, but a nebulous strobe of many. A pair of interlocking circles lying on their sides – the Human symbol for infinity – was pressed into it as a device.

"Vert," she asked, turning to the blonde-haired warrior, "where did you leave your vehicles when you came in here?"

"A city block to the southwest. But how can we get out of here?"

"Get out?" she asked, looking puzzled. "We are not getting out."

To punctuate her sentence – and to silence the obvious, confusion-filled questions that would come, mostly concerning her judgment – the Keymaster flung the Master Key at the southeast corner. The moment it connected with metal, the walls crumbled away like it had not been in perfectly-good shape. Her Human companions jumped away from the breach, but Choza stayed by her Mistress' side, as stoic and unmoved as a statue as she watched as the rubble freeze in midair. Under the control of the Master Key, guided by Metaturra's will, the metal floated back up, fusing into four larger, rectangular plates that would be large enough to accommodate two standing Humans.

"Technically, we _are_ getting out," she continued, turning to face them. "But to be more specific, we are flying out."

"What's the difference?" Stanford muttered. No one paid attention.

"Uh, you sure this is a good idea?" Spinner asked, suddenly worried more than ever about Metaturra's judgment.

"No, but it is preferable to staying here and waiting for the Zurk and possibly Krytus to open the door. Would you not agree?"

**XxX**

Two minutes and no small amount of screaming later (mostly from the Humans – Zoom looked exhilarated while Spinner sounded like a little girl), Metaturra's "flying carpet" solution landed the crew down next to the hidden vehicles. The Shifter 2.0 had returned to its normal colors; if Metaturra noticed any difference from the original she didn't mention them.

Revving her engines, Choza slammed the motorcycle into high gear, her Mistress' arms wrapped around her waist. While the hadron energy had enabled Metaturra to get them out unscathed, she was still exhausted, and her shape was fading in and out again. The sooner they could bring her to the River Delta Zone – where Vivi, the Black Mobi, and her Power Orb were waiting – the happier she would be.

The Diad was at the back of the group, just behind Agura and the Cortezs – the better to have the heavyweights nearby if she needed them – but to make sure she didn't lose her passenger, the Shifter 2.0 was driving at a slower speed than the rest of Battle Force 5. Thusly, when the sensors of Reverb picked up the many squadrons of Red Zurk just three miles away and closing in fast, Stanford immediately spun around, dropping his flanking position beside Vert to slide in beside Choza. Pulling off his classic "drive-and-shoot-backwards" maneuver, the British prince unloaded several sonic blasts at the high-rise highway they were leaving behind.

Crumbling rubble greeted the sensors of the Reverb, making its driver believe he had succeeded. Unfortunately, these Zurk seemed to be smarter than the automatons Zemerik had commanded – when Zoom took a quick flight detour backwards, he reported that a lot of them were driving into the gap on purpose, filling it up into a makeshift bridge.

"Any sign of Krytus?" Choza asked.

"Not that I could see, but that's a lot of Zurk he's got chasing after us."

The last thing Zoom was feeling was encouraged by the news that they had a small army in hot pursuit, so when radiant smiles appeared on the faces of the two extraterrestrials, he had to wonder what was up. The next thing he knew, Metaturra had twisted around in her seat, eyes gleaming as she gathered her slim strength, and fired beams of violet energy.

The first lines of Zentners had come onto the horizon by now, and when the two beams reached them, they glowed white. When the glare had faded, a dozen or so Zurk had turned from deep scarlet to onyx black, whirling around to engage their former allies.

Choza looked over her shoulder at her mistress in admiration. "Not bad for someone who looks half-dead. How much energy do you have left?"

"Thank you for the glowing compliment," she replied sardonically. "But I only have ten percent left. I could only provide two similar system overrides before I would need to re-enter hibernation mode."

The BF5 captured what she said on their comms, but before Vert could devise a new strategy, new alarms began blaring out of their scanners. One glance was enough to confirm their worst fears – Krytus was on-planet and heading their way at a speed that would've sent Sheriff Johnston into a spasm, had he been around to see it.

"He wants us all," Metaturra murmured, "but he must not, especially not the Five. Vert Wheeler," she said into the comm., "Separate the lock from the key. You must have found Vivi, to know I had been taken – return to her and give her a last order from me: bring my Mobi to Earth. Sage _must _be protected if the Multiverse is to survive Krytus again."

"You'll make it there, right?"

"We have the coordinates to Sage's Hub," Choza interjected. "We'll come through another Battlezone once we get rid of these Zurk. Fare thee well, Battle Force 5."

With a final glance, the Shifter's driver veered off the highway and onto the plains below. A good deal of the Sark followed, as she had expected, but Stanford still had some work to do before Vert used the Battlekey and they flew through the River Delta portal.

**XxX**

The portal flung the BF5 onto the plateau overlooking the waterfall. It sealed behind them, even as the Black Mobi faded out of cloak mode and into view just in front of them. As the garage doors swung open, they drove in, finding the other Black Diad waiting for them on the lift that led to the cockpit.

"Did you find Mistress Metaturra?" she asked, her synthesized falsetto echoing around the metal walls.

"Yeah, but she's currently running from a group of Zurk, along with Krytus," Zoom said, knocking his kickstand into place and dismounting. Tucking his helmet under his arm, he added, "Metaturra gave one final order before we split up: for you to bring the Mobi to Earth, where Sage is. She and Choza will meet up with us once they shake the Zurk."

"If they escape again," Vivi replied, finishing the thought none of the Humans wanted to think. Turning, she indicated to them. "Come on – the Mistress' word is law to me, and I need the coordinates."

The BF5 followed the Diad upward. At her command, the doors sealed up, and they trundled off (flattening more than a few trees as they rolled). A flash erupted from where Vert had attached the Battlekey, and a portal opened near the stone ruins. The convoy vehicle rolled through to the salt flats beyond, and then vanished from sight.

**XxX**

Back on the Red Sentient planet, Choza was looking for a good place to open her portal. Her work under Metaturra had taught her a thing or two about Multiverse physics, and where a portal was opened had an impact on where in a Battlezone you ended up.

Finally deciding just to take a risk (and hoping that she wouldn't come out over a gorge or something equally unpleasant), she generated her mini-Key, sparing a quick look over her shoulder at the dozen or so Zurk that had doggedly followed the Shifter so far. Metaturra still wasn't in fantastic shape, but that would all change once she made it through.

In her hand, the Key turned a pale blue-white, and the Diad threw it forward. Her acceleration brought her through to the deadly-shining world of the Crystal Battlezone – and almost immediately flung the Shifter into a hard left, swerving around a deadly outcrop of crystal.

Three Zurk weren't as lucky, becoming impaled on the spikes and shattering them into a thousand pieces, but as she gripped the slippery slope grimly, Choza could see a little extra color bloom into Metaturra's appearance. The data streams that fueled the Zone were granting her Mistress extra energy – energy enough to use her most deadly function.

Already the return to the Battlezones had done her a world of good – years had fallen from her appearance – and as she swung her legs around the side, she leapt down. Assured of her strength, she bounded forward, taking larger and larger leaps, soon jumping up the slopes of the crystal mountains that lay in the center, where no vehicle could hope to follow.

Her target was the peak of the highest mountain, where the greatest secret of the Keymasters lay hidden. Krytus, in his apprenticeship, had seen and heard of them, but he had never accessed them – only a wielder of the Master Keys could crack them open. Smiling, she drew her personal key – the one she had not taken from another Keymaster after they died – and flicked it forward.

The snowy crystal turned clear, than vanished altogether. In its place was a black version of a Power Orb, housing the machines the Black Diads called the Cradles of Life.

The Cradles were supercomputers, designed to regulate a Battlezone's conditions in the absence of a Keymaster. When accessed by a Black Sentient wielding a Master Key, they could restore their strength, lock down a Zone utterly … and control it to their whims.

With Key in hand, she glided through, the energies dancing around her like they were welcoming her back to where she belonged. Smiling, she called the Cradle to activate under her will, and the machines hummed in reply.

**XxX**

Down below, Choza saw the mountaintop disappear, heard the earth-rumbling hum, and knew then that Metaturra was safe. Only another High Keymaster could gain access to an active Cradle after it was brought under another's control, and as soon as her Mistress gathered it around herself, the Zone would be sealed off and all hostile entities would be terminated.

Assured of that, her focus changed. Her Mistress was in safe hands – now it was time to see how many of the nine remaining Zurk she could take out before Metaturra did the work for her.

_Gotta stay in practice somehow._

With that in mind, Choza revved her engines and raced down a shiny slope, the Red Sark in hot pursuit. An outcropping was coming up, becoming an effective roadblock on the narrow thoroughfare and leaving only two narrow ways around it. The Diad swore that she could faintly see the outline of another Sark and their Zetner underneath the gemstone, but she took no time to scan it. After luring the first two to stay behind her, she kicked her thruster into gear, simultaneously hopping onto another dimensional plane. When she returned to normal, she noted with some satisfaction that more than just two had smashed against it – only three had evaded her trap; the rest had gotten into a serious fender-bender.

Smirking, Choza checked her environmental readouts, but they weren't needed to realize what was going on. In the Cradle, a giant blast of black energy had been released into the sky, slowly spreading into a net that encompassed the Zone. That net would prevent any portals from being opened where it touched; once it was complete, it would be the ultimate bastion.

It also had the added bonus of feeding directly into her systems. Her power core, which had been around 73% when they had rescued Metaturra, had been boosted right back to 100%, and kept feeding into her – leaving her with plenty of energy to activate her new program.

_[[Combat processing online]]_

_[[Environmental scan positive; raw materials present]]_

_[[Weapon generation beginning]]_

_[[Generation complete]]_

Ahead, her optic sensors caught sight of a shining blade of diamond, detached from the walls and hovering in the air by the energy that was crackling in the atmosphere. The magnetic grappler on the Shifter snatched it and delivered it into Choza's left hand; holding it in a reverse grip, she dropped back to plunge it into the windshield of one of the flanking Zetners, then switched hands in a half-second for the other to be dispatched the same way.

Both spun out, she phasing out of existence to protect herself from the dark matter spines (and the resulting explosions). One Zurk remained, as did fifteen seconds for Metaturra to finish sealing the Battlezone up and zap the robot into atoms. A sharp turn through a mini-cave made up of reflective crystal would do for her "shutterfly" function.

Quickly calibrating the "shutterfly" to work on machines (and replacing her visual sensors with her sonar), the Diad accelerated, charging up her photon blaster. Just before she went into a hard left turn, she fired – and just as she expected, it rebounded off the curved crystal wall, missed her, and slammed directly into the circuitry of the pursuing Red Sark. While she couldn't see the collision with her optics offline, the gratifying _smash _reached her ears loudly.

Smirking in satisfaction, Choza switched her eyes back on as the Shifter roared down the road onto a large, roughly circular plateau. The whole area was ringed by giant pillars of gemstone, the colors pale blue and shocking white. By her time, ten seconds remained until the Zone was shut up tight, and there were no Sark left. They would just need to hang tight after the gateways were closed, and then they could slip to Earth, with Krytus unable to follow.

The thought had barely finished formatting in her mind when a red blur came before her. In shock, she leaned hard, using the Shifter as a shield to protect herself when she slid directly into a sharp-faceted pillar, leaping away with the crystal sword before it crashed. Her scanners went over it; when the results came back with only superficial damage to report, she relaxed.

Turning around, she faced Krytus, who had caused his Synfurious to dissipate and had formed his right hand into a blade. He glared at her with sulfurous hate, but the Diad's emotions were that of pity for what Metaturra's prize student had become – and grim determination. No matter the past, she could not allow him to take her or Metaturra – it was destroy or be destroyed.

**XxX**

Originally this was going to be a _much _longer chapter (with the fight actually happening), but I wanted something to get posted before Christmas, so I cut Chapter 9 in half. Hopefully, the next chapter will come fairly soon.

So yeah, read and review. And if you saw the allusion to the episode _Mobi 3.0_, bonus points for you. =D

-Inferna Firesword


	11. Virus

Virus

Wrapped in the safety that cloak mode gave it, the Black Mobi trundled lazily across the salt flats, under the direction of the Humans and the control of the Black Diad. It rolled towards the mountains that lay at the back of Vert's garage, where the giant lift that Sage used to move her Mobius Command Center in and out of the Hub had its entrance. It would now be used for Vivi to bring her Mistress' vehicle below ground, into a space Sage had hollowed out for it.

Agura had managed to establish radio contact with the Blue Sentient herself as the doors opened, who sounded immensely relived to hear their voices again. "Are Metaturra and Choza with you?" she asked.

"Negative," Vivi growled as she pulled the Black Mobi into a 180 degree turn and began backing into the lift. "This is Black Beta Diad Vivi speaking, Sage. My scanners indicate that my Mistress and Alpha Prime Choza are inside the Crystal Zone. I could patch us into the frequency of that Cradle, but the entire area is in code yellow lockdown."

"Which means?" Stanford asked.

"The governing AI has detected a self-aware hostile entity inside the Battlezone, and has locked everyone that does not carry a Master Key out and in. For it to be lifted, the entity would need to pacified, either by Choza terminating it personally, Metaturra modifying the Zone to attack it, or for the AI's programming to not destroy such threats automatically to be overridden. Most likely Krytus slipstreamed behind his Zurk before the area lockdown was complete."

The lift doors closed in front of giant convoy vehicle; had any bystanders been outside, they would've seen the face of the mountain slide back to hide a sterile-looking space. "Is there anything that we can do?" Sage asked over the com, inwardly knowing the answer.

"No. All that can be done is to watch, wait … and hope."

**XxX**

The slice came at blazing speed, but Choza had anticipated that maneuver. Her own blade shot up to counter it, body twisting position to make up for the fact she lacked his advantages of height and strength. They remained locked for some uncounted amount of time, but then she dived away, letting Krytus' sword slam into the crystal ground as she slid to a halt beside one of the pillars.

"Slippery as usual," noted the Red Sentient in his curiously soft voice, which never seemed to rise above its current octave even when angry. Pulling his arm free from the ground, he advanced again.

Back on her feet, Choza gave a proud, swagger-filled laugh, hard anger forming its undertone. "I'm not as weak as Whyer was when you found him. Surely you remember that, old friend – or has your head filled up with hot air during your imprisonment?"

Incensed, Krytus lunged for her, but the Black Diad – still laughing – flipped a few feet away. "Am I to fear you?" she taunted, knowing that it would be harder for him to focus his prowess if enraged. "You don't scare me. In this Battlezone, you are insignificant; it won't be long before Metaturra crushes you. Crawl back to your home and try to defeat us in other ways, because you can't here."

Snarling, the ex-Keymaster apprentice pressed his advantages of reach, size, and power, but the Alpha Prime countered with her agility and black blade. Each block, flip, and thrust was accompanied by a taunt or a quip, which angered him even more.

High above their heads, the Cradle of Life flashed like lightning in a storm, several bolts of energy blazing down to strike three of the crystal pillars that surrounded the duelists. The obelisks they struck shattered, revealing emaciated, skeletal figures that were as tall as Agis Guardians and carried long, wicked spears. With bodies made of crystal and eyes formed from the granite deep below the surface, they strode forward with their blank gaze fixed on the Red Sentient.

Choza looked around her and grinned, flipping aside as Krytus turned his attention on the creatures Metaturra had created. Krytus knew that the creatures, no matter their size, were made of a crystal weaker than the stuff his shell was made of. All the same, knowing Metaturra, she might reanimate her warriors after he destroyed them.

"By the way," Choza asked casually from the sidelines as she climbed up a bordering cliff, "how is dear Kyburi? Lethal as usual? Or is cryostasis making her soft?"

A shriek of rage was her answer, followed by a blast as the Red Sentient unleashed a shockwave from within himself, shattering the crystal warriors. The Black Diad ducked inside a crack formed in the face to avoid the shards, no longer confident. While she had known this comment, going straight for the former Keymaster's soul, would push a major button, she had not estimated just how angry Krytus would get in response. If he had enough fury and hate to create this shockwave …

She dared to look out. All three crystal warriors had been obliterated, with a large scorch mark in the crystal marking the blast zone. Lifting her black crystal blade, Choza leapt back down to the plateau, aiming to slam her blade right on Krytus' head and cut his shell wide open, but the Red Sentient managed to roll to the side and block.

More energy bolts rained down from above, springing out more crystal warriors from the pillars and sending them out to fight. Metaturra was trying to buy time for her to override the Cradle's function and end the battle, but Choza knew better than to rely on that. In the years after the other Keymasters and their Diads had perished, the Black Sentient had begun losing control over many Battlezones, simply because she would be spread too thin if she tried to control all of them. It had been so long that she had used the Cradles that she could no longer pluck their metaphorical strings and watch them dance. The best way to end this confrontation would for the Alpha Prime to deal the blow.

In a brief pause in their lethal dance, the female Diad noticed that shards from some of the warriors Krytus had destroyed were beginning to slide across the ground, like they were being magnetically drawn to a central point. She saw what her Mistress was up to instantly: rather than drawing attention to the warriors she created by sending energy waves, she was subtly reconstructing another by using parts from the others. Of course, Choza would have to keep Krytus' attention on her and not on the surroundings for it to work, but …

_Fight, fight, fight!_

The Diad shoved the contemplation aside and jumped back into the duel, but Krytus was getting his focus back – each blow came closer to breaking her guard. Each time her optics were drawn to the tip of his blade, and her instincts whispered to not let it breach her shell, for even a pinprick would spell disaster.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the crystal warrior was reformed, and Choza watched it rise back to its feet, spear in hand. But the distraction and wash of hope cost her dearly: Krytus seized the opportunity to slam his other hand into her belly.

The impact both winded her and sent the Alpha Prime flying, slamming her hard into a pillar. Through unfocused optics she saw her blade was still in her grip, Krytus lunging for her with sword outstretched, the warrior throwing its weapon directly at the Red Sentient, and she tried to regain her footing – too late.

A nanosecond before the creature's speartip stabbed into Krytus' back, the Red's sword dug deep into Choza's navel, even as she attempted to stand.

Pain hit instantly, coming from the glass-like material of the blade as it pierced her shell – then it was followed with more pain, as Krytus' Antimatter was injected into her own systems. An unconscious shriek escaped her lips as her anti-virus programs kicked in, but they were meant to keep the Matter and Antimatter that was present in her body naturally from overpowering each other. They didn't have the strength to destroy Antimatter introduced by a Red Sentient.

Then the crystal spear broke a hole clean through Krytus' shell, the edges of the breach and the needle burning with an intense orange glow. As the crumpled Diad watched, her sword vanishing from her nerveless fingers and the stab burning scarlet, the former Keymaster's body exploded, detonating from the inside to reveal his life essence: a ball of Antimatter, like living fire. Through fevered eyes Choza waited for the life force of her enemy to dissipate.

But it didn't. The globe remained cohesive as it flew away. For a moment it looked like it would ram against the net that sealed off the Battlezone, but a hole appeared in the weave, and let it pass through unscathed.

Metaturra. Only she could do that. Even after all of this time, she could still show mercy to her former student.

Fire burned in Choza's body, Krytus' Antimatter surging in her systems. Lines of code flashed before her vision, and were the last things she saw before her vision went dark.

_[[Excess Antimatter detected; beginning decontamination process]]_

_[[Imbalance at 55%]]_

_[[Imbalance at 65%; systems at code yellow]]_

_[[Imbalance at 75%; systems critical; beginning emergency shutdown]]_

_[[Emergency shutdown complete; imbalance at 80%]]_

**XxX**

**A/N: **Terribly sorry that I haven't been able to update sooner; this chapter was pain to get right. Only 2-3 chapters plus the epilogue remain of _Keymasters_, but that won't be the ending. From what I've planned out, this story will only be Act 1 of a four-part series. =D

Thanks for reading!

-Inferna


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